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MANUAL 



OF 



UNITED STATES HISTORY. 



FROM 1492 TO 1850. 



By SAMUEL ELIOT, 

AUTHOR OF A HISTORY OP LIEERTr, AND PROFESSOR OF HISTOET AND 
LITERATURE IN TRINITY COLLEGE. 



BOSTON: 
BREWER AND TILESTON. 



<-^' 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S56, by 

Samuel Eliot, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



7^1 VS 



ELECTROTTPED AT THE 
iOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. 



PREFACE 



I HAVE written this book to supply a want felt by 
others, as well as by myself. We have looked in vain 
for a work, of moderate extent, in which the leading 
principles and the leading facts of our history are set 
forth side by side. To provide such a volume for the 
reader and the student is the object of the following 
Manual. 

In writing it, I have endeavored to observe the proper 
proportions. The same space is not given to every period 
or to every transaction. On the contrary, events are 
narrated at greater or less length according to their im- 
portance — a few days occupying as many pages in some 
parts of the volume as a long series of years in others. 
By thus making inferior matters subordinate, I trust that 
I have done more justice than might be anticipated from 
the appearance of the book to the great passages in our 
history. It is nowhere, however, a book of details. I 
have confined myself intentionally to outlines — endeav- 
oring to sketch these in such a way as to suggest com- 

(iu) 



iv PREFACE. 

prehensive conceptions of the whole, rather than ctymplete 
views of any single part. 

In the last division of the work, I have entered upon 
dangerous ground. Party feelings are still active in rela- 
tion to many of the movements and many of the men 
described in my later chapters. It is vain to hope that 
the views which I have taken will be every where accept- 
able. But I can conscientiously say that I have written 
of the latest, as of the earliest occurrences, without a 
sensation of partisanship, or of devotion to any cause less 
universal than the cause of truth. 

The character of the publication not admitting frequent 
notes or large citations, it is right for me to state that, 
while I have principally relied upon original authorities, 
I have also followed later writers to a considerable degree. 
To some works — Irving's Columbus, O'Callaghan's and 
Brodhead's Histories of New York under the Dutch, 
Sparks's Appendixes to the Writings of Washington, Los- 
sing's Field Book of the Revolution, Duyckinck's Cyclo- 
paedia of American Literature, and Hildreth's History of 
the United States — I am under obligations which duty 
and inclination alike compel me to acknowledge. 



CONTENTS. 



PART I. 

OCCUPATION. 

CHAPTER I. 

Europe before 1492. 

Europe — Activity there — Material movement, 3. Intellectual move- 
ment — Moral movement, 4. General elevation"— Monarchy in Europe 
— Discovery of America, 5. 

CHAPTER II. 

Columbus. 

Early life — Project of discovery, 7. His motives, 8. Voyage of dis- 
covery — The west the possession of Spain, 9. Other voyages of Co- 
lumbus, 10. His spirit — Name of America — A new world, 11. 

CHAPTER III. 

Spanish Settlements. 

Spanish adventures — Ponce de Leon in Florida — Various expedi- 
tions, 13. Luis de Cancello — Melendez, 14. De Espejio and Vizcaino — 
Motives, 15. Institutions — Circumstances— Extent of Spanish claims, 
16. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Erench Settlements. 

New France— Carolina: Fate of its Huguenots, 17. Expedition to 
avenge them—Acadie and Maine: De Monts and De Saussaye, 18. 
a* (v) 



vi CONTENTS. 

Canada: Champlain — Collisions with the English, 19. Priests and 
missionaries — Other settlers — Institutions — Circumstances, 20. Ex- 
tent of French claims, 21. 



CHAPTER V. 

English Settlements. 

Section 1. —Early movements — England and Columbus — Voyages of 
the Cabots, 22. Interval: Gilbert and Drake, 23. Raleigh — Failures 
of his colonies, 24. Gosnold and others — 111 success of the English, 25. 
Section 2. — Companies — Organized efforts, 25. Patent of Virginia, 26. 
London Company : Members and colonists — Jamestown — New charters, 
27. Fortunes of the colony — Institutions, 28. An infant colony — Fall 
of the company, 29. Virginia a royal province — Growth of the colony, 
30. Plymouth Company : Members — Colonization attempted, 31. Va- 
rious proprietors and companies — Settlement of Plymouth, 32. Its dis- 
tinction in history, 33. Political fornis — Spirit, 34. Grants — Attempt 
at general government — Chaos, 35. New Hampshire and New Somerset- 
shire — Cape Ann and Salem, 36. Company of Massachusetts Bay — 
Boston, 37. Increase and independence — Charter government, 38. Pu- 
ritan principles — External relations — Internal relations, 39. Connecti- 
cut, 40. Providence and Rhode Island — Dissolution of the council, 41. 
End of companies — Position of New England — Thomas Morton, 42. 
Sec^iOw3.— Proprietors — Grant of Maryland, 43. A proprietary gov- 
ernment—Religious liberty — Troubles, 44. Other proprietors — Con- 
clusion — English motives, 45. Institutions — Circumstances — English 
names, 46. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Dutch Settlements. 

Group of traders — Spirit in Holland — Dwindled in America — Hud- 
son's voyage, 47. Company of New Netherland, 48. Proposals of the 
Plymouth Puritans — West India Company — Walloon colony, 49. New 
Amsterdam — Patroons, 50. English claims, 51. Trade of the colony, 52. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Swedish Settlements. 

Idea of GustaA-us Adolphus — Oxenstiem calls in Germany— Results, 
54. Opposing claims, 55. 



CONTENTS. vii 

CHAPTEIl VIII. 

Indian Races. 

European races — Indian races — Names and numbers, 56. Algon- 
quins — Iroquois, 57. Mobilians — Customs and institutions, 58. In- 
fluence upon the European — Counter influence upon the Indian, 59. 
African race — The country, 60. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Europe from 1492 to 1638. 

The great change — Its cause and character — Luther's course, 61. 
Divisions — A crisis of good and evil, 62. Religious consequences — 
Political consequences — Spain, 63. France — Holland, 64. Sweden 
and Germany — England, 65. . Intellectual expansion, 66. 



PAET II. 
ENGLISH DOMINION. 

CHAPTER I. 

England and France from 1638 to 1763. 

Question of precedence— Reign of Louis XIV. — The monarchy, 69. 
The church — The nation, 70. Reaction — The English nation — Pe- 
riods of trial — Revolution of 1688, 71. Aristocracy in power — Eng- 
lish progress, 72. England and France, 73. 

CHAPTER II. 

The Thirteen Colonies. , 

Old and new colonies — Plymouth annexed — Maine annexed, 74. 
New Hampshire — Massachusetts, 75. Connecticut — Rhode Island — 
Four colonies in New England, 76. Virginia — Maryland, 77. Caro- 
lina, North and South, 78. New York, 79. New Jersey, 80. Pennsyl- 
vania, 81. Delaware — Georgia, 82. Aspect of the thirteen, 84. 



viii CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER III. 

Colonial Relations. 

Races — Classes, 85. Of the old world, 86. Institutions belong to the 
freemen — English law, 87. Colonial governments, 88. Towns, 89. 
Assemblies, 90. Churches — Persecution in Massachusetts: Child, 91. 
Baptists, 92. Saltonstall's remonstrance — Dunster of Harvard College, 
93. Quakers, 94. Witches, 95. Persecution elsewhere, 96. Save in 
Rhode Island, 97. Inter-colonial difficulties — Shawomet and Massachu- 
setts, 98. United Colonies of New England, 99. Treatment of Rhode 
Island — Disagreements, 100. Dissensions elsewhere — Penn and Balti- 
more, 101. Relations to the mother country — The crown — Charles II. 
and Massachusetts, 102. Loss of the Massachusetts and other charters — 
Parliament, 104. Navigation acts — Duties, 105. Royal governors — 
Berkeley in Virginia — Bacon's rebellion, 106. Andros in New England, 
107. Revolution — But not liberty, 108. Fletcher in New York, 109. 
General strictness, 110. Perils of the frontier, 111. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Indian Wars. 

Spirit of the Indians — Spirit of the English, 112. Missionary labors 

— The Mayhews aud Eliot, 113. Supports — Results, 114. Wars in 
Yirginia and Maryland, 115. Pequot war — Narragansets, 116. King 
Philip, 117. War throughout New England — Destruction of the Nar- 
ragansets, 118. Of Philip— Peace, 119. Abenakis in anns — Peace in 
the centre and south — War in North Carolina, 120. In South Carolina 

— With Cherokees — With western tribes, 121. Pontiac's war — Indians 
in Pennsylvania, 122. Other wars, but the issue decided — Later mis- 
sions, 123. 

CHAPTER V. 

Dutch Wars. 

Wars with Indians, 125. Effect upon New Netherland — Internal re- 
strictions, 126. Religious persecution — Subjection of New Sweden, 127. 
New Amstel — English aggressions, 128. War : Loss of the province — 
Recovery and final loss, 130. 

CHAPTER VI. 

Spanish Wars. 

Spanish race — Its colony — Collisions with the English, 131. Effect 
on the colony — War: Attacks on St. Augustine and Charleston, 132. 



CONTENTS. ix 

Treaty of Utrecht — Second war : Descents on Florida — Third war : 
Georgia and Florida, 133. Fourth war : Cession of Florida, 134. Spain 
in Louisiana and California — Character of the Spanish wars, 135. 



CHAPTER VII. 

French Possessions. 

French race — New France — System of government, 136. Relations 
with Indians and English, 137. Acadie, including Maine — Canada, 
including New York, "Wisconsin, Michigan, 138. The Mississippi : Illi- 
nois— Louisiana, 139, French dominion — Colony in Texas, 140. Col- 
ony in Mississippi — Colony in Alabama — Grant to Crozat, 141. "West- 
ern settlements: Indiana — Loss of Acadie — Forts: Pennsylvania and 
Ohio, 142. Mississippi Company : New Orleans — Missouri : the thirteen 
of France — "Vastness and weakness, 143. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

French Wars. 

"Wars with Indians in the north — In the south — Strife between the 
French and the English, 144. Indecisive wars — King "William's war, 
14f5. Its character and course, 146. Religious differences — Queen 
Anne's war, 147. Collision in the west, 148. And in the east — King 
George's war, 149. Blood shed in Nova Scotia, 150. The Ohio Com- 
pany — Blood shed in Pennsylvania: George "^Vashington — The final 
struggle, 151. Extent, 152. Losses of the English — Their subsequent 
victories, 153. Conclusion of the war — The French retire, 154. French 
and English compared, 155. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Colonial Development. 

Development of territory — Of occupation, 156. Of habits of life — 
Of education, 157. Colleges — Of the press, 158. Official interference, 
159. Editions of the Bible ^ Intellectual development: In action, 160. 
In literature — In science, 161. In art, 162. Influences from abroad — 
Liberality in religion, 163. Church of England, 164. Project of bishops, 
165. Classes : The slaves, 166. Colonies : "Union, 167. Contributions 
to Boston, 168. 



X CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER X. 

The Mother Country. 

Views of the mother country— Board of trade, 169. African Com- 
pany, 170. Colonial governors, 171. Cornbury in New York — Burnet 
and Belcher in Massachusetts, 172. Clinton's appeal, 173. Parliamen- 
tary interference — Commercial rule, 174. Military rule — Impressment 
at Boston — A commander-in-chief of the colonies, 175. Judicial ten- 
ure—Writs of assistance, 176. English dominion, 177. Effects on the 
colonies — Upon the mother country, 178. Temporary unity, 179. 



PART III. 
THE INFANT NATION. 

CHAPTER I. 

Provocations. 

Old troubles extended — Parties in the mother country, 183. Views 
of the colonies — Parties in the colonies, 184. The two sides — Minis- 
tries of the period — Point of taxation, 185. Discussion — Sugar act, 186. 
Stamp act — Resistance, 187. Congress — Declaration of rights and lib- 
erties, 188. Effect, 190. Riots — Non-importation and non-consump- 
tion, 191. Repeal of stamp act, 192. American rejoicings — New acts — 
Resistance again, 193. Massachusetts convention, 194. Act concerning 
trials in England, 195. Colonial divisions — Boston massacre, 196. 
Other disturbances, 197. Additional act concerfting trials — Tea de- 
stroyed in Boston, 198. And elsewhere — Slave trade, 199. Chastise- 
ment of Massachusetts and Boston, 200. Quebec act — Conventions and 
Provincial Congress in Massachusetts, 201. National spirit — Continental 
Congress, 202. Its work — American Association, 203. Petition and 
addresses — Peace or war, 204. Preparation, 205. 

CHAPTER II. 

War. 

Arming of Massachusetts — Not unprovoked or unanticipated, 206. 
Arming of other colonies — Course of Parliament, 207. First collision, 
208. Its significance — Lexington and Concord, 209. Effect: Meek- 



CONTENTS. xi 

fenburg declaration, 210. War in Massachusetts — Ticonderoga and 
Crown Point — Proceedings in Congress, 211. Washington appointed 
oommander-in-chief, 212. Bunker Hill — Washington at the head of the 
army, 213. DifRculties — Siege of Boston, 214. General government, 
215. The thirteen complete — Military operations, 216. Loyalists — 
Great Britain determined, 217. Washington before Boston — Recovery 
of the town — The victory, 218. Increasing perils, 219. 



CHAPTER III. 

Declaration of Independence. 

Transformation of colonies to states — Idea of independence, 220. 
North Carolina and Virginia — Congress — Hesitation, 221. Lee's reso- 
lution — Debate, 222. Committee on declaration — Resolution adopted, 
223. And the declaration — The United States, 224. Plan of confedera- 
tion — Unity in Congress — State constitutions, 225. Dinsions amongst 
the people, 226. 

CHAPTER IV. 

"War, continued. Second Period. 

Three periods — Characteristics of the second period — Reception of 
the declaration, 227. Defence of Charleston— Loss of New York, 228. 
Loss of Lake Champlain and the lower Hudson — Loss of Ne\vport, 229. 
Defence of New Jersey, 230. Organization of army, 231. Dictatorship 
— Paper money, 232. Arrival of Lafayette, 233. Defeat of Burgoyne, 
234. Loss of the Hudson Highlands — Loss of Philadelphia, 235. 
Washington's embarrassments — Loss of the Delaware, 236. Wickes's 
cruise — Cabal against Washington, 237. Army quarrels, 238. Army 
sufferings — Aspect of Congress, 239. Treaty \nth France — British 
conciliation, 240. Recovery of Philadelphia, 241. Possession of Illi- 
nois — End of the period, 242. 



CHAPTER V. 

War, continued. Third Period. 

Characteristics — Failure to recover Ne\A'port, 243. British and Indian 
ravages, 244. Decline of American affairs, 245. Loss of Georgia — 
Defence of Charleston, 246. Failure to recover Savannah — Invasion of 
Virginia — Operations in the north, 247. Jones's cruise, 248. Spain in the 
war, 249. Loss of South Carolina — Failure to recover it, 250. Abandon- 
ment of the south —Its defence — Darkness in the north, 251. Light in 



xii CONTENTS. 

the south, 253. TToUand in the war — Final adoption of the Confedera- 
tion, 254. Its inefficiency, 255. Defence of the Carolinas, 256. The 
central states in danger, 257. Crisis — American preparations, 258. De- 
feat of Cornwallis, 259. Effect— Prospects, 260. Evacuation of the 
south — The European combatants, 261. Cessation of hostilities — Re- 
lease of prisoners, 262. Treaties of peace, 263. Evacuation of the north — 
Troubles in the American army, 264. Disbanding — Government of the 
nation, 265. Washington's counsels, 266. And prayers, 267. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Constitution. 

Foreign sympathy — Lafayette's visit, 268. "Wants of America — Organ- 
ization, 269. The states: Internal troubles, 270. Dismemberments — 
Case of Vermont, 271. Disputes between state and state — General 
government, 273. Organization of the north-west territory, 274. Difficul- 
ties with Spain, 275. And Great Britain, 276. Dark times — Old foun- 
dations — Recent superstructures, 277. Religious privileges, 278. Ec- 
clesiastical organizations — Suggestions of a national Constitution, 279. 
Conventions at Alexandria and Annapolis — Action of Virginia, 280. 
Of other states and of Congress, 281. Opening of the Convention — 
Aspect, 282. Plans of a constitution, 283. Question of powers, 284. 
A national system adopted — Parties : Small states and large states — 
Views of state government, 285. Votes of states, 286. Agitation, 287. 
Parties : North and south — Apportionment of representation — The slave 
trade, 288. Details and discussions, 289. Adoption of the Constitution — 
Opposition in the nation, 290. Constitutional writings, 291. Adoption 
by the states, 292. Character of the transaction, 293, Sympathy for 
mankind — Literature of the revolution and the Constitution, 294. The 
music of Billings, 295. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Washington's Administration. 

Washington president, 296. Organization of government — Solem- 
nity of the work, 297. WashindJ^on to his fellow-Christians — The na- 
tion, 298. Work of Congress : The departments and the judiciary — 
Amendments to the Constitution, 299. Revenue — Credit, 300. Man- 
ner of decision, 301. National bank — Parties, 302. Especially north 
and south — Points concerning slaver}', 303. As to the territories, 304. 
Starting point of future strife, 305. Presidential tours — Work of the 
states — New states — Dependence upon Washington, 306. Animosity 
of parties — Insurrection in Pennsylvania, 308. Indian wars, 309. In- 
dian interests, 310. Heckewelder, the missionary — Tribute to Algiers, 



CONTENTS. xiii 

311. Foreign relations — Commercial treaties, 312. Treaty with Spain 
— Relations with Great Bj^tain and France, 313. Parties thereupon, 
314. Washington proclaims neutrality — Point proposed — Mission of 
Genet, 315. Great Britain and France invade American neutrality — 
Threatened war with Great Britain, 317. Mission of Jay, 318. His 
treaty, 319. Opposition — Ratification — Continued opposition, 320. The 
point gained, 321. Continued embarrassments : From abroad, 322. And 
at home, 323. Abuse of Washington, 324. His retirement — Lafayette, 
325. 



PART ly. 

THE GROWINO NATION. 

CHAPTER I. 

• FoREiGX Aggressions. 

Party administrations, 329. Parties amongst the people — Parties in 
relation to foreign aggressions, 330. Missions to France — Arming of 
the United States, 331. War — Strain upon the nation, 332. Nullifica- 
tion, 333. Another mission to France, 334. Death of Washington, 335. 
The French mission — Diflficulties with Spain, 336. Mississippi Territory : 
Slavery under debate — Territory of Indiana : Slavery again, 337. War 
with Tripoli — Acquisition of Louisiana, 338. Troubles abroad and at home 
•— Chief point involved in the acquisition, 339. Organization of Louis- 
iana territories, 340. Other territorial and state organizations — Burr's 
projects, 341. Difficulties with Great Britain — Mission, 342. Affair of 
the Chesapeake, 343. Aspect of Great Britain and France, 344. British 
and French aggressions, 345. The administration against war — Em- 
bargo, 346. Succeeding acts, 347. Opposition, 348. Indian hostilities, 
349. Louisiana and Florida — Warlike preparations against Great Brit- 
ain, 350. Termination of preceding strifes, 351. 

CHAPTER II. 

War with Great Britain. 

Declaration — Cause of the United States, 353. A party cause, 354. 
As such opposed, 355. War at home, 356. Means for the war, 357. 
Position of Great Britain — Of France — The war: Losses An north- 
b 



xiv CONTENTS. 

western frontier, 358. Perry's victory on Lake Erie, 359. Operations on 
New York frontier, 360. Actions on Niagara frontier, 362. Defence of 
Lake Champlain — British superiority — Successes at sea, 363. Subse- 
quent reverses, 364, Losses upon the coast — Loss of north-eastern 
coast — Capture of Washington and Alexandria, 365. Defence of Balti- 
more — Indian foes, 366. National straits, 367. Party controversies, 368. 
Hartford Convention — Charges of disunion, 369. Proceedings of the 
Convention, 370. Results — Nullification in Connecticut and Massachu- 
setts, 371. Defence of Louisiana, 372. Martial law at New Orleans, 373. 
Reappearance of the navy, 374. Peace preliminaries — Treaty of Ghent, 
375. Protection of foreigners, 376. Indian treaty — Algerine treaty, 
377. Exhaustion of the nation, 378. 



CHAPTER III. 

Missouri Compromise. 

Foreign affairs — Domestic affairs, 379. Administrations — Seminole 
war, 380. Acquisition of Florida, 381. New states — Proposal of Mis- 
souri — Question of slavery, 382. Con^tutional argument, 383. Two 
sides — Intense agitation, 384. Maine seeks admission — The compro- 
mise, 385. Different interpretations, 386. Admission of Missouri — 
Slave trade, 387. Visit of Lafayette, 388. 

CHAPTER IV. 

The Monroe Doctrine. 

Relations mth Central and South America — Monroe doctrine, 389. 
Purpose, 390. Congress of Panama — An American league, 391. 



CHAPTER V. 

Tariff Compromise. 

Administrations — Question before the country — Georgia controversy, 
392. Tariffs, 393. NulHfication at the south — Removals from office, 395. 
Concessions to Georgia, 396. Tariff questions — Foot's resolution : De- 
bate, 397. Revision of tariff, 398. Nullification in South Carolina — 
Secession, 399. Resolution of South Carolina, 400. Resolution of gov- 
ernment, 401. Resolution of states — Tariff compromise, 402. Decision, 
403. On the great question, 404. 



CONTENTS. XV 

CHAPTER VJ. 

Financial Disordeks. 

National finance — Veto of United States Bank charter, 405. Re- 
moval of deposits, 406. Agitation, 407. Money troubles — Sui-plus 
revenue — Abolitionism, 408. Indian wars, 409. Disturbed foreign rela- 
tions — Especially with France, 410. Parties, 411. Commercial crisis, 412. 
Independent treasury, 413. Insolvency of states, 414. Repudiation in 
Mississippi, 415. National credit, 416. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Annexation of Texas. 

Recognition of Texas — Settlement of that state, 417. Revolution — 
Project of annexation, 418. Texas refused admission, 419. Relations 
with Great Britain, 420. Treaty of Washington, 421. Landmark in 
our history — Sedition in Rhode Island : Approach, 422. Outbreak, 423. 
Civil war, 424. New states and territories — Movements concerning 
Texas, 425. Question of slavery — A compromise, 426. Consequences, 
427. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

AVau with Mexico. 

Causes of War : Mexican — American, 428. Boundary of Texas, 429. 
Mission from United States — HostiUties, 430. Disparity of combat- 
ants — Oregon controversy, 431. Settlement, 432. Conquest of north- 
east of Mexico, 433. Conquest of Chihuahua, 434. Conquest of New 
Mexico — Conquest of California, 435. Operations in Gulf of Mexico — 
March upon city of Mexico, 437. Battles on the way — In valley of 
Mexico, 438. Last actions, 439. Composition of United States forces — 
Forced supplies, 440. Peace: First steps — Next steps, 441. Treaty, 
442. Character of the war, 443. 

CHAPTER IX. 

Compromise of 1850. 

New territory, 444. Difficulties — Old questions subsiding, 445. Or- 
ganization of old territory — Organization of new territory — Slavery 
question, 446. Convention of southern members of Congress, 447. The 
territories declare against slavery, 448. Clay suggests compromise — 
Webster in debate, 449. Report of compromise, 450. Its adoption — 
Continued controversy, 451. 



xvi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER X. 

National Development. 

Development of Territory — Of population, 452. Of occupation, 453. 
Of investments — Of communications, 454. Of education, 455. National 
institutions — Exploring Expedition, 456. The press — Libraries, 457- 
Literature: Political — Theological, 458. Legal — Historical, 459. Sci- 
entific — Belles lettres — Fiction, 460. The drama — Poetry, 46L Art 
— Religious development, 462. Charities, 463. Conclusion : The past 
and the present, 464. Part of the nation in human history, 465. 



APPENDIX. 

European Sovereigns, 467 

American Authorities, 468 

Presidents of Continental Congress, 468 

National Administrations, 468 



PART -I. 



OCCUPATION 



1492-1638. 



(1) 



I 



CHAPTER I. 

EUEOPE BEFORE 1492. 

The history of the United States begins in 
"^°P®' Europe. There the movements, there the men 
arose, appointed to prepare the way for a new nation 
on the earth. 

Activity If we look over the century, or the half century, 
tiiere. preceding 1492 in Europe, we are struck by the 
numerous signs of change and of growth. Many countries, 
it is true, appear to be unmoved ; perhaps the few alone 
seem to be really sharing in the activity of the period. But 
the activity is all the more remarkable in being confined to 
a portion only of^he European races. It both seems and 
is a strange thing that three or four nations, not closely 
united with one another or amongst themselves, should all 
at once put forth their energies, and lift the world, a« it 
were, into a wider and a loftier sphere. 
Material ^^^^ great material movement of the age was in 
move- maritime discovery. An instinct to search over 
^^^ ' unknown seas for unkno^vn shores led to many an 
adventure and many an acquisition. No people was more 
distinguished in these enterprises than the Portuguese, 
whose navigators made their way to the Madeiras (1418-20) 
and the Azores (1432-57) on the west, then on the south, 
along the African coast, to and beyond the Cape of Good 
Hope, (1486-97.) The chief prize at which the adven- 
turers were aiming lay in the East, amongst the lands 

(3) 



4 PART I. 1492-1638. 

embraced under the common name of the Indies. But a 
golden hue of wealth and of fame was spread over all the 
seas and all the shores within the reach of the Europeans. 
, , „ , There was also a crreat intellectual movement. 

Intellect- '^ 

uaimove- The invention of printing, (1440-50), followed by 
the revival of ancient learning, awakened the scholar 
from a long-enduring trance. He found more to learn, 
more to teach, and above all, a larger circle by whom his 
studies would be encouraged and his teachings received. 
The poet and the artist imbibed fresh inspiration from the 
increasing culture of the times ; whatever was the vocation 
of the mind, it was at once enlarged and ennobled. If this 
were the proper place to cite examples, we should turn to 
Italy, whose scholarship, whose poetry, and whose art never 
shone out together with greater lustre than during the 
fifteenth century. The glow spread to other nations in 
their turn. 

jj^j,^j The great moral movement of the period was the 

move- most wondcrful of all. For ages, the spirit of man 
™^°*' seemed to have ceased to act, ex^pt in the narrow 
and darksome limits prescribed by authority. Here and 
there an individual had appeared to plead for the freedom 
and the faith of the Christian, but never with permanent 
success, often with immediate failure. At the later time of 
which we speak, there was a spiritual restlessness, too general 
and too strong to be repressed. Men tore the bandages 
from their eyes ; they shook the shackles from their arms ; 
and though long submission had rendered them incapable 
of effective exertion, they did not exert themselves in vain. 
At the end of the century, a reformer appeared in Italy, 
close to the centre of Christendom at Rome, in the person 
of the friar Savonarola, (1452-98,) whose rebukes of cor- 
ruption and of oppression were forerunners of the greater 
reformation that was to come. 



EUROPE BEFORE 1492. 5 

General ^ there is any single impression to be derived 
eieva- from movements so various, it is that of the eleva- 
tion of classes hitherto feeble and degraded. The 
voyagers, the students, and above all, the earnest be- 
lievers of the period, sprang, in many cases, from what 
were called the lower orders ; and back upon the same 
orders, in all cases, descended more or less of the benefits 
resulting from the deeds that were achieved. But we are 
not to suppose that human nature was changed, or that the 
improvement in men, in their character or their condition, was 
instantaneous. The work now going on had been begun, so 
far as its higher elements w^ere concerned, ages and ages 
before. It would require ages and ages to come before it 
could be in any degree completed. 

Another movement of the times was more limited 

Monar- 
chy in in its relations and its eflects. This was the rising 

iiiope. ^^ ^j^g modern monarchies from out the strife, direct 
and indirect, in which they had long been engaged with the 
Papal authority. The monarchical power, at first nothing 
more than the substitution of one oppressive dominion in 
the place of another, or in the place of another combined 
with itself, of course affected its possessors rather than its 
subjects. But as the preparatory process by which more 
liberal constitutions might be ultimately reared, the inde- 
pendence of the European monarchies was the great polit- 
ical revolution of the period. Prominent amongst the 
individual figures of sovereigns were Louis the Eleventh 
of France, (1461-83,) Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, 
(1479-1506,) and Henry the Seventh of p:ngland, (1485- 
1509.) 

jj.g^^^ Amid these changing systems, these varying 

ery of efforts, the middle ages passed away, and the 

menca. j^^^^^.j^ ^g^g ^^gan. If there is any occurrence 
to stand as the first upon the newly-opened rolls, it is that 



6 PART I. 1492-1638. 

which came in season at once to profit by the time and to 
quicken its advance. Had the event taken place before, or 
long before, it would have been lost in the silence and the 
stagnation that had prevailed ; had it not taken place when 
it did, or soon after, many of the desires to which men were 
freshly stirred, many of the resources with which they wiere 
freshly provided might have failed for want of object and of 
development. The event of so much significance was the 
discovery of America in 1492. 



CHAPTER II. 

Columbus. 

Early Chkistopher Columbus * was bom in Genoa, 

^*^^- about the year 1435. Following the sea from the 
age of fourteen, he was attracted, some twenty years after- 
wards, to Lisbon, then the centre of maritime enterprise. 
There Columbus married the daughter of an Italian naviga- 
tor in the service of Portugal ; there he renewed the 
studies and the experiences of earlier manhood ; there, 
after a residence in one of the Madeira Islands, far out in 
the Atlantic, he made known his project of crossing the 
entire ocean. He was then close upon the age of forty, 
(1474.) 

Both reflection and tradition sujjorested the possi- 

Project . , ^ . 

of dis- bility of reaching the farther East across the west- 
covery. gj,^^ g^^^g^ j^ rcport amoug the northern nations 
told of voyages from Iceland to Greenland, and thence to 
Vinland, the Land of the Vine, where settlements had been 
made, but abandoned. Still more familiar were the trav- 
ellers' tales of Marco Polo, the Venetian, (1295,)t and of Sir 
John Mandeville, the Englishman, (1364,)t who painted in 
glowing colors the provinces and the islands, the cities and 
the palaces of the Grand Khan of Tartary upon the east- 
ern shores of Asia. It was to seek these realms, with the 



* In Italian, Colombo ; in Spanish, Colon, 
t Dates of their return. 

(7) 



8 PART I. 1492-1638. 

magnificence of which all Europe had long been ringing, 
that Columbus proposed to sail westward. But, however 
supported by rumor or by argument, his plans met with no 
encouragement. Their rejection by the Portuguese court 
(1484) threw him back upon his native Genoa, then upon 
other states, ajid finally upon Spain. Eighteen years in all 
of rebuff and of hostility had been endured, when Isabella 
of Castile yielded to the earnestness and lofty visions of the 
Italian, already an elderly man, (April 17, 1492.) 
His mo- The mere fact of his age prevents our ascribing 
tives. selfish or covetous motives to .Columbus. Doubt- 
less he had his schemes of achieving fame and fortune, as 
well for himself as for the sovereigns by whom he was sus- 
tained. The compact with Ferdinand and Isabella pro- 
vided that Columbus should bear and bequeath to his heirs 
the titles of Admiral and Viceroy of all the lands discov- 
ered by him, together with the right to one tenth of the 
revenues expected from the same. But there were higher 
ends to which he more ardently aspired. The journal of 
hi« voyage begins with reminding Ferdinand and Isabella, 
to whom it is addressed, of their determination to send him 
to " the lands of India," and to " a prince who is called the 
Grand Khan," " to see the said prince and the people and 
lands, and discover the nature and disposition of them, and 
the means to be taken for the conversion of them to our 
holy faith." * He elsewhere repeats an assurance that he 
had made in presence of the sovereigns : " Whatever I gain 
from this enterprise of mine shall be expended in the con- 
quest of Jerusalem." The conversion of the unbelievers, 
succeeded by the rescue of the holy sepulchre from the 
hands of those still unconverted, fill in the background of 
the design which Columbus had conceived, the foreground 

* Mr. Irving 's translation in his Life of Columbus, Book III. Chap. I. 



COLUMBUS. 9 

alone being occupied by the land to whicli he was pointing 
the way. 

In this spirit Columbus set sail from Palos, with 

Voyage ^ ^ ' 

ofdis- three small vessels and with one hundred and 
covery. ^^ygjj^y companious, at dawn on Friday, August 3, 
1492. Ten weeks afterwards, at dawn on Friday, October 
12, he reached the shores of an island, of which, as soon as 
he could disembark in solemn state, he took possession with 
prayers and thanksgivings, under the name of San Salvador, 
or Holy Saviour. For nearly three months he cruised 
amongst the Bahamas and the larger islands to the south- 
west, one of which, Cuba, he supposed to be the continent 
of Asia, while another, Hispaniola, was taken to be an 
island of great beauty and wealth described by Oriental 
voyagers as lying off the Asiatic coast. Leaving. a garri- 
son on the latter island, and taking a few natives in his 
train, Columbus retraced his course, arriving off the Tagus 
on the 4th, and at Palos on the 15th of March, 1493. 
He had found, as he thought, nothing more than he had 
proposed, and the name of West Indies was therefore given 
to his discoveries. 

Although thus regarded as a part of the earth 

The West ,-,?.-,, -r. , ^^^ -r , 

the pos- already visited by Europeans, the West Indies were 



^^ . more than sufficient to satisfy the discoverer and 

of Spam. ^ ^ -^ 

his sovereigns. So favorable were* his accounts of 



'&' 



the route across the sea, and of the treasures to which it 
led, in the form of precious metals, jewels, and spices, as 
well as of beautiful and boundless lands, that all Spain was 
stirred with wonder and exultation. The first thought with 
the rulers was to make sure of their acquisitions, the more 
so as Portugal was known to have an eye upon discoveries 
in the same direction. Accordingly the Spanish sovereigns 
had recourse to the Pope of Rome, who had previously 
confirmed the claim of the Portuojuese to the countries on 



I 



I 



10 PART I. 1492-1638. 

and beyond the African coast. A Papal bull was issued, 
declaring Portugal possessed only of what might be dis- 
covered on the east of a line " from the north to the south 
pole, a hundred leagues to the west of the Azores," while 
all to the west of the line was secured to the Spaniards. 
In the following year (1494) the Portuguese acquiesced 
in a division according to a line drawn, not one hundred, 
but three hundred and seventy, leagues to the west of the 
Azores, or Cape Verd Islands. Yet this did not prevent 
them from pushing their discoveries northward and south- 
ward within the limits of the Spaniards. Still less did the 
award of Rome affect the enterprise of other nations, as 
will be seen hereafter. 

The Spaniards, however, were lonsr the most ac- 
voyages tivc lu cxplonng and ni occupymg their Indies. 
ofCoium- -^Q^ to speak of many other expeditions, in which 
all sorts of men took part, three more were con- 
ducted by Columbus himself. On his second voyage 
(1493-9G) he founded the first town, and engaged in the 
first war in which Europeans were concerned on the western 
shores. The town, named Isabella, was in Hispaniola ; 
the war was waged with the natives of the same island. 
It was at the end of this voyage that the first slaves from 
America were taken to Europe. His third voyage (1498- 
1500) brought Columbus to the continent, which he sup- 
posed himself to have reached on the shore of Cuba, but 
which he did not see until near the Island of Trinidad, 
off the nortliern coast of South America, (1498.)* He 
soon became involved in the first serious dissensions 
amongst the Europeans in the Indies, and was sent home 
from Hispaniola in chains. It was not long after that 
tlic first negro slaves from Spain f were transported to 

* The Cabots reached the continent in 1497. See Chapter V 
t The first from Africa did not go before 1511. 



COLUMBUS. 11 

the Spanish colonies, (1502,) but not by Cokimbiis. He, 
liberated by the sovereigns, made his fourth and last 
voyage, (1502-4,) during Avliich he attempted the first 
colony upon the continent near the River Belen, on the 
Isthmus of Panama. He had met with far more nu- 
merous failures than successes, when he returned to Spain 
after an almost uninterrupted service of thirteen years. 
Others, following in his steps, had met with greater 
rewards than he ; but the dreams of the voyagers and of 
their countrymen were still to be fulfilled, 
iiisspir- Infirm and injured as he was and as he had been, 
^*- Columbus never lost heart. Even when just set 

free from his fetters, at the. end of his third voyage, he had 
written to the Spanish sovereigns and to the Roman pontiff 
of his unshaken determination to extend the Christian faith 
and to recover the sepulchre at Jerusalem. The same 
objects were commended in his will to his posterity. In- 
deed, it seems as if he clung to his religious purposes the 
more earnestly as his worldly projects failed. A few months 
passed after his final return, and the aged discoverer sank 
to rest, seventy years old, (May 2Q, 150G.) 
Name ^^^^ Spirit, SO free from irresolution and from 

of Amer- worldly pride, has descended in part, it is to be hoped, 
upon the lands to which he led the way. But they 
bear another name. Amerigo Vespucci, a native of Flor- 
ence, but a resident in Spain at the time of Columbus's dis- 
covery, subsequently sailed to the west in the service of 
Spain, and then of Portugal. His descriptions of the con- 
tinent which he reached, and Avhich he portrayed as possess- 
ing all the attributes of a newly-discovered one, induced a 
German geographer to coin the name of America about 
the time that Columbus died, (1507.) 

A new Vespucci was far from conceiving or conveying 

world. ^i^Q truth concerning America. Voyages in the 



12 PART I. 1492-1638. 

north, to which we shall revert, had already (1497-98) be- 
gun to reveal the real character of the new shores. But it 
was some years before Cuba was found to be merely an 
island, (1508,) and it was still longer before the Pacific was 
reached across the isthmus in the centre, (1513,) and 
through the straits on the south of the continent, (1520.) 
Slowly and wonderingly it was learned that Columbus had 
discovered a new world. 



I 



CHAPTER III. 

Spanish Settlements. 

s anish From almost every point hitherto gained in 
adven- America, as well as from the shores of Spain, ad- 
ventures, some great, some small, some national, 
some individual, were urged by the Spaniards in all direc- 
tions. The West Indies, at first the whole, soon became 
the mere centre of the Spanish possessions. 
Ponce de ^^^ ^^^^ ^^ reach the territory of the present 
Leon in United States was Ponce de Leon, a companion of 
Columbus. Long visited by dreams of riches, and 
latterly, in his advancing age, excited by rumors of a foun- 
tain in which youth might be renewed. Ponce set sail from 
Porto Rico in search of the treasures in the north. On 
Easter Sunday, — in the Spanish calendar Pascua Florida, 
— he descried a land to which, in his mingled visions of 
resurrection and of abundance, he gave the name of Florida 
or Flower-land, (1512.) Nine years later, with a com- 
mission from the Spanish crown, as governor of Florida, 
Ponce returned to conquer and to colonize his discovery. 
But driven off by the natives of the coast, the old adven- 
turer left Florida to return no more, (1521.) 
,, . A series of expeditions had already bejmn to 

Various ^ jo 

expedi- scour the Atlantic coast. The Portuguese Cor- 
tereal had led the way, twenty years before, in a 
cruise towards the north, (1501.) A line of Spanish ad- 
venturers, intent upon treasure and conquest, succeeded. 
2 (13) 



14 - PART I. 1492-1638. 

Vasquez de Ayllon twice made descents upon Chicora, the 
later Carolina, (1520-24.) Gomez sailed farther to the 
north in quest of a western passage to richer lands, (1525.) 
Pamphilo de Narvaez tried his fortune in Florida, (1528,) 
whither also De Soto directed his greater expedition, and 
pursued his wanderings northward and westward (1539-43) 
with no greater reward than the discovery of the Mississippi, 
(1541.) At the same time, Vasquez Coronado was pene- 
trating from Mexico high iip into tlie interior, (1540-42,) 
while De Cabrillo (1542) was coasting the Pacific shore, 
and, though dying on the voyage, leaving his pilot, Ferrelo, 
to ascend as far as Oregon, (1543.) Of these western ex- 
plorations there were few if any results to satisfy the 
explorers. Nor were the adventurers in the east better 
contented ; the only ones to gain any thing being those who 
laded their ships with slaves. The natives had been pressed 
into bondage almost from the moment when they were first 
seen in the West Indies. 

Luisde A figure of more Christian aspect aj^pears in 
Canceiio. L^jg jg Canccllo, a Dominican friar. Obtaining 
an order from Spain that all the slaves from the northern 
shore of the Gulf of Mexico should be returned, he set 
sail with such as he could collect. Instead of proposing to 
conquer the natives, he went with the hope of converting 
them to a religion of peace. But in his first interview with 
them on the coast, he and two priests accompanying him 
were slain, (1549.) 

Meien- Nearly twenty years elapsed, and our soil was 

^^^- still unoccnjiied by the Spaniards. At length a 
veteran commander, Melendez de Avilez, engaged to com- 
plete the conquest and to commence the colonization of 
Florida, with a train of soldiers, priests, and negro slaves. 
He was of a stern temper, without a vision of romance or a 
touch of sensibility to turn him from the severe enterprise 



SPANISH SETTLEMENTS. ,, 15 

which he had assumed. He began with the foundation of St. 
Augustine, (September 8, 1565,) the oldest town in the 
United States. Then he routed and slew some French 
settlers who had lately encamped upon the ground claimed 
by Spain,* and whose destruction had been one of the great 
incentives to his expedition. Where they fell most thickly, 
the conqueror marked out the site of a Christian church. 
The colony thus resolutely founded brought none of the rich 
returns that had been looked for ; but it was not abandoned. 

Fifteen years afterwards, the expeditions from 
jioand Mcxico wcrc rcncwcd by Ruiz (1580) and De 
Vizcaino, j^gpejio, (1581,) the latter of whom, followed by 
soldiers and Indians, marched northward, until he named 
the country New Mexico, and founded the settlement of 
Santa Fe, the second town ftf the United States in point 
of age. Twenty years later, (1G02,) a squadron under Se- 
bastian© Vizcaino explored the Cahfornian shore, bestow- 
ing upon its headlands and its bays many of the names 
which tlfey still bear. It was Vizcaino's hope to colonize 
the coast, but he died in the midst of his schemes, (1G08.) 

The motives of the Spanish settler, as we per- 

Motives. ' ' ^ 

ceive, were partly of a high and partly of a low 
nature. Devoted to great aims and to generous deeds, he 
encountered, as Luis de Cancello did in Florida, the perils 
of an unknown shore, in order to impart to others the faith 
in which he lived and for which he was willing to die. But 
in another aspect the Spanish character grows dark and 
threatening. Men, like the greater part of those who have 
been mentioned, sought our land for gold or for dominion ; 
sometimes, indeed, with a national object, but more gener- 
ally for merely selfish ends. Motives of this sort led to 
scenes of cruelty and of carnage, on which it is, fortunately, 
unnecessary to dwell. 

* See the next chapter. 



16 ^ PAET I. 1492-1638. 

The institutions of Spain were those of an abso- 
tions. ^^^^ monarchy. They lent but Uttle aid to the devel- 
opment of the better elements in the national charac- 
ter. Indeed, they rather encouraged the opposite elements, 
both before and after the colonies of the nation were 
founded. A military rule was the only political institution 
of Florida. It was in the hands of a few officials, whose 
authority was kept up at the sacrifice of the general prog- 
ress of the settlements. A rigid system of trade, uphold- 
ing a monopoly in favor of the government, or of the 
capitalists dependent on the government at home, increased 
the obstacles with which the colony had to contend. 

Coming with these motives and under these insti- 

Circum- i^utions, the Spaniards found themselves in circum- 
stances. ' ^ 

stances of similar tendency. Choosing the south 
for their first, and, as it proved, their only settlements, from 
its promising the richest harvest, they met the influences 
springing from the air above them and from the earth 
beneath them. The habits of indulgence and of repose 
which ensued were any thing but favorable to character or 
to prosperity. 

Extent of ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^' between were the Spanish settle- 
Spanish ments. But the Spanish claims were universal. 

In the first place, there was the papal bull of 1493, 
conveying a right to all America. In the next place, there 
were the successive discoverers from Ponce de Leon to 
Vizcaino, whose labors had won the continent anew. The 
name of Florida was stretched from the Gulf of Mexico to 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; that of New Mexico was made 
equally extensive in the interior and on the west. Could 
names, and deeds, and papal bulls have sufficed to support 
the Spanish claim, it would have prevailed tlu'oughout the 
United States. 



CHAPTER IV. 

French Settlements. 

New The approaches of France to our country were 

France, made, first by fishermen, (1504,) and then by navi- 
gators. A Florentine, Verrazzani, in the French ser- 
vice, saihng along the coast from Florida to Newfound- 
laud, was not deterred by any previous discoveries from 
giving to the continent the name of New France, (1524.) 
Ten years after, the Frenchman Carticr renewed the name 
in voyages in and about tlie Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
(1534-42.) 

Nothing, however, was done in a persevering 

Carolina. n i i . -i * t • 

Fate of its "^^7 to iix the uamc upon the territory, until Admi- 
Hugue- YdX De Coligny conceived the idea of a colony to 
which his brother Protestants, the Huguenots, might 
repair for refuge against persecution in France. After 
failing to make a settlement in South America, De Coligny 
despatched a party to the northern coast, where a fort, 
named Carolina in honor of the French king, Charles, was 
erected near Port Royal in the present South Carolina, 
(1562.) This settlement likewise falling through, another 
was made upon the St. John's in Florida, where a second 
Fort Carolina was reared, (1564.) The mutinous dispo- 
sitions of the colonists had already begun to threaten the 
existence of the settlement, when it was annihilated by the 
Spanish force under Melendez de Avilez, (1565.) Such 
of the French as did not escape or fall in battle were put 
2 * (17) 



tion to 

av 

them 



18 PART I. 1492-1638. 

to death by the Spaniard and the Catholic, "not as French- 
men," he is said to have declared, "but as Lutherans." 
Such was the unhappy fate of the first fugitives from the 
old world to the new. Objects at once of religious and of 
national animosity, they were pursued by enemies enlisted 
against them as on a crusade. The passions of Europe 
obtained fresh space in America ; the feeble fell, the strong 
triumphed as they had done in older lands. 

But there was something inspiring, after all, in 
tion to' the associations of the western shore. If the fugi- 
enge ^ivcs tliitlicr wcrc murdered by their foes, they were 
not forgotten by their friends. Three years after 
their victory, the Spaniards were surprised on the same 
ground by a French expedition mider De Gourgues, a sol- 
dier of Gascony, who had sold his estate in order to avenge 
his fallen countrymen. He took the Spanish forts, and 
hung his prisoners, with the inscription above them, " Not 
as Spaniards or Mariners, but as Traitors, Robbers, and 
Assassins." Thus was our soil a second time darkened 
with the slaughter of strangers. Without waiting an attack 
from the Spaniards at St. Augustine, De Gourgues sailed 
home, the last of the French to attempt the possession of 
Florida or of Carolina, (1568.) 

A long period elapsed before the French reap- 
and ' peared, except as fishermen or as traders, in any 
Maine. p^j.(. ^f America. At length, a grant of all the 

De Monts ^ -r> i • -xr -r» 

and De territory from Pennsylvania to JNew Brunswick, 
Saussaye. ^^j-^j^^. ^^iQ name of Acadie, was made by Henry 
IV. of France to the Sieur de Monts, (1603,) one of whose 
officers, Poutrincourt, made the first permanent settlement 
of Frenchmen in America at Port Royal, (1604,) since 
Annapolis. A plan of De Monts to mixke a settlement 
upon Cape Cod, though twice attempted, was given up on 
account of the hostility of the natives, (1605-OjS.) Some 



FRENCH SETTLEMENTS. 19 

years afterwards, one or two Jesuit missionaries crossed 
over from that part of Acadie w^hicli was occupied, to a 
part as yet unoccupied, within the limits of the present 
Maine, (1612.) They were followed the next year, by De 
Saussaye, the agent of Madame de Guercheville to whom 
the earlier grant to De Monts was now reconveyed; the 
limits being extended so far as to reach from Florida to the 
St. Lawrence. De Saussaye, accompanied by a few Jes- 
uits, began the colony of St. Sauveur upon Mount Desert 
Island, off the coast of Maine, (1G13.) It was hardly be- 
gun, however, before it was broken up by an attack from 
an English armed vessel belonging to the then rising colony 
of Virginia. 

Meantime the banners of France had been car- 

Canaua. . 

Cham- ried up the St. Lawrence. Champlain, the greatest 
^^'^'"' leader whom the French had as yet followed to the 
west, laid the foundations of Quebec in the heart of the 
province of Canada, (1G08.) The next year, forming an 
alliance with the Algonquins, then at war with the Iroquois 
or Five Nations of New York, he marched southward to 
the lake which bears his name, (1G09.) Six years later, 
he took the lead in another foray which penetrated the 
forests on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, (1015.) 
A new way appeared to be open to French settlements in 
the United States. 

Collisions But nothing followed. The English arms, after 
with the j^j^ interval of several years, were carried against 
the northern settlements of the French. Acadie, 
already made the subject of an English grant, and Canada 
were conquered, but restored, (1628-32.) Then the French 
came down in their turn, and drove the English from the 
trading posts established by the Plymouth colony on the 
Maine coast, (1631-35.) The attempts to repel them 
were in vam ; on the contrary, they forbade the English to 



20 PART I. 1492-1638. 

pass Pemaquid, a point midway between the Kennebec and 
the Penobscot. The interior was at the same time in the 
occupation of the French priests, if of any Europeans. 
Priests "^^^^ priests and the missionaries of France were 
and mis- the most prominent amongst her settlers. They 
came full of adventure as of faith, hesitating at no 
danger, shrinking from no sacrifice. That there should be 
some less worthy amongst the number was a matter of 
course. It was equally natural that, among the most wor- 
thy, there should be many to magnify their work, to count 
their converts too freely, and to oppose their antagonists too 
fiercely. But taken all in all, the French missionaries have 
hardly received the place that they deserve in our history. 
What they were and what they did will appear more 
clearly at a later period. 

other With the priest came the soldier, the explorer, 

settlers. ^^^ ^[^q trader, all animated by the love of enter- 
prise, to say nothing of its rewards in fame or in riches. 
They form a less sinister group than the Spanish settlers, 
more supple, more gay, though by no means more gallant 
or more adventurous. 

Tnstitii- Much of the difference may be ascribed to the 
tions. influence of the French institutions. These, at the 
time in question, were the institutions of a comparatively 
limited monarchy. If there were arbitrary influences in 
the government, sufficient, as we shall hereafter observe, to 
oppress its subjects and its colonies, there was also some- 
thing of a more generous nature, by which the devotedness 
of the missionary, the bravery of the soldier, and the zeal 
of the adventurer were sustained. 

Circtim- The circumstauccs in which the French settlers 
stances. 'VYepe placed tended to confirm all their enterprise 
and all their fortitude. Abandoning the southern Carohna 
and drawing in the limits of Acadie on the south, they were 



FRENCH SETTLEMENTS. 21 

for a long time concentrated upon northern shores and in 
northern valleys. In these lands, adventure was not to be 
pursued, nor was sustenance to be obtained, without energy 
and hardihood. 

In followinpj the French into Acadie and Canada, 

Extent of ^ 

Trench wc havc gouc far beyond the limits of the United 
claims, gi^ates. But their Acadie embraced our Mame, or 
a large portion of it ; their Canada comprehended our Ver- 
mont and our New York, or large portions of them ; not to 
speak of the western regions afterwards included in the 
same province. We shall return to the French at the 
epoch of their later acquisitions. For the present, we 
leave the name of New France, bestowed by Verrazzani 
and Cartier in their voyages, and confirmed by Poutrin- 
court, Champlain, and De Saussaye, in their settlements, 
extending in immense proportions along the seaboard and 
in the interior. It was a title to be set against the Florida 
and the New Mexico of Spain. 



England 



CHAPTER V. 

English Settlements. 

Section I. — Early Movements, 1492 to 1606* 

The English were first connected with America 
and Co- tliTough Columbus. When his plans of discovery 
lum us. ^gj.g declined by the Portuguese court, he sent his 
brother Bartholomew to make the same offers to Henry 
Vn. of England, (1484.) Bartholomew, long upon his 
way and upon his return, was bringing back some favorable 
proposals from the English king just as Christopher was 
returning from his first voyage, (1493.) It was too late 
for England to obtain the services of Columbus. 

But it was just in time for England to profit by 
of the his discoveries. Both the king and his subjects, at 
^^^^' least those of his subjects who were interested in 
navigation, seem to have caught the impulse naturally 
springing from such an enterprise as had been achieved. 
"Within three years from the first return of Columbus, Henry 
authorized a Venetian then belonging to Bristol, John 
Cabot, with his three sons, to start an expedition at their 
own expense, in order to do whatever they could for them- 
selves, and at the same time to set up the banners of the 
English monarch, as his vassals and deputies, upon the 
lands supposed to exist northward of those discovered by 
Columbus, (1496.) The Cabots, setting sail in the follow- 
ing year, (1497,) reached a shore called by them Prima 

(22) 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 23 

Vista, the First View, since known by the name of 
Labrador. It was more than a year before the continent 
was gamed by Columbus. Another voyage, made a year 
later (1498) by Sebastian Cabot, the second son of John, 
and a native of England, was directed along the coast of 
the new continent from the latitude of Labrador to that of 
the Chesapeake. 

So successful a beginning ausrired a;reat ends. 

Interval. -^^ . -,,.,. 

Gilbert -l^ut there ensued a long mterval, m which none but 
^^ isolated and remote adventures towards the west 

Drake. 

were undertaken in England. The fisheries of the 
north were for many years the only objects^ of attraction in 
the direction of America. Then the opening of hostilities, 
at first rather of a private or piratical than of a national 
character, against Spain,* drew the English towards the 
southern regions. But the -central territories, those of 
the present United States, were long unvisited except for 
some passing purpose. More than three quarters of a cen- 
tury had elapsed since the coasting voyage of Sebastian 
Cabot, and both the Spaniards and the French had several 
times seized upon the shores discovered by the English 
navigators, when a new permission to possess and settle the 
western lands was given by Queen Elizabeth to one of her 
noblest subjects, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, (1578.) At the 
same period, while Sir Francis Drake, the half hero, half 
freebooter of the English navy, was on his Yojage of ad- 
venture and plunder round the world, he gave the name of 
New Albion to the coasts of California and Oregon. Thus 
gaining a foothold on the western as w^ell as on the eastern 
side of the continent, England was recalled, at a moment 
of general activity throughout the nation, to her interests in 
America, 

* Beginning about 1570, though there was no formal war until 1585. 



24 PART I. 1492-1638. 

Sir Humphrey Gilbert perished in the course of 

Raleigh. , 1 1 . A • 

a second attempt to reach his American possessions, 
(1583.) But his claims were immediately transferred to 
his half brother, Walter Raleigh, the courtier and the 
cavalier of the age in England, (1584.) A voyage of 
exploration was immediately made under his directions to 
the coast of our North Carolina, of which so flattering an 
account was returned to him and to his sovereign, that the 
name of Virginia, from the virgin Queen Elizabeth, was 
not thought too great for the new land. 
Failures ^^^ ^^^^ following year, (1585,) Sir Eichard Gren- 
of his ville, one of the chief commanders of the time, left 

a colony of one hundred and eighty persons at 
Koanoke Island ; but such were the hardships which they 
encountered, that they were only too well satisfied to be 
taken home by Sir Francis Drake a year afterwards. 
They had scarcely gone when Grenville returned with 
supplies for them, and he, unwilling to have the colony 
abandoned, left fifteen of his mariners to keep possession 
until they could be reenforced, (1586.) The little band 
was gone, murdered, it was believed, by the natives, when, 
in the next year, (1587,) a fresh party of one hundred 
and seventeen arrived. Soon after they came, the first 
English child to see the light in America was born. She 
was the daughter of Ananias Dare, and the granddaughter 
of John White, the leader of the expedition, who gave her 
the name of Virginia. But the presence of the infant 
brought no better fate to the colony than had befallen its 
predecessors. The one hundred and eighteen disappeared, 
and though sought for at various times, were never heard 
of more. Raleigh lost heart as well as means. He made 
over his patent to a number of persons, (1589,) who, with 
less enterprise than he, met with still less success. North 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 25 

Carolina was but a waste as far as English settlements 
were concerned, and Virginia but a name. 
Gosnoiti Many years passed before any further attempts 
anri wcrc made to occupy the American coast. The 
° ^"■^' cessation of hostilities with Spain* at length re- 
opened the way to commercial and colonial enterprise. 
Bartliolomew Gosnold, after landing on Cape Cod, sailed 
thence to Buzzard's Bay, where, on Elizabeth's Island, 
named after his queen, he commenced, but soon abandoned, 
a settlement, (1G02-.) The adjoining coasts were revisited 
the next year (1G03) by Martin Bring, and again, the next 
year but one, (1G05,) by George Weymouth, both, like 
Gosnold, commanders of distinction. The preparation for 
settlements was decidedly resumed. 

It was high time. The Spaniards had their St. 
ces8of Augustine and their Santa Fe, the French their 
tho Eng- i^QYi Uoyal, though this was beyond the limits of 
our United States. But the English, the first to 
discover the coast, were still without a single foothold upon 
it. Wherever they had gained one, it had slipped from 
beneath them. 



Section II. — Companies. 160G to 1G35. 

^^ ^^_ Hitherto the efforts of the English in exploring 

ized and in settling the American shore had been those 
of individuals. No one, indeed, unless it were 
those who went on voyages for fishery or for trade, at- 
tempted his enterprise without the formal countenance of 
the sovereign. But there had been no organized efforts 
such as were now prepared. 

* 1604. But it was some time since the war had been generally car- 
ried on. 

3 



26 PART I. 1492-1638. 

Patent of ^ J^^r or two after James I. succeeded to the 
Yirginia. English thronc, he issued the patent of Virginia. 
This was a twofold grant of the American territory 
from what is now North Carolina to what is now Maine. 
Of this vast tract, the southerly half* was appropriated to 
the First Colony, and the northerly f to the Second Colony, 
each colony to be founded and governed by a separate 
council, to which the grant was made. The council or com- 
pany, as it is generally styled, of the First Colony went by 
the name of London, from the residence of its prominent 
members. For a similar reason, the name of Plymouth 
was given to the council or company of the Second Colony. 
The great point, however, is this, that the parties to the 
patent were not colonists, but capitalists, not adventurers, 
but speculators, who, in their respective corporations in 
England, not in America, were declared possessors of the 
best portion of the American territory. At the same time, 
the companies were invested with ample powers to settle 
"colonists and servants,'* to impose duties, and to com 
money. Their obligations, in return, were to pay over to 
the crown a share of their profits,^ and to support the laws 
and the church of England. To exercise some sort of 
supervision over so great corporations as these, a council 
for Virginia was instituted by the king, who, to complete 
his work, put forth a code of laws and regulations for the 
direction of the various bodies which he had created. 



* From lat. 34° to lat. 38°, -v\'ith a right, if first in the field, to make 
settlements as far north as 41°. 

t From lat. 41° to lat. 45°, with a right, if first in the field, to make 
settlements as far sonth as 38°. 

X One fifth of the gold and silver, and one fifteenth of the copper, that 
miglit be found. 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 27 



THE LONDON COMPANY. 

The moving spirit of the London Company ap- 
and pears to have been Richard Hakluyt, prebendary 

CO onis s. ^^ i^i-istol, afterwards of Westminster, who had been 
interested in American colonization from the time of Ra- 
leigh's expeditions. Around him were gathered many 
eminent and energetic men, among them Sir George Cal- 
vert, the future founder of Maryland, but none of greater 
promise, in relation to the Avork before them, than Barthol- 
omew Gosnold, the settler of Elizabeth's Island, and John 
Smith, a'hero in the east long before he turned his face 
westward. Gosnold and Smith were both amongst the first 
colonists. 

James- It was in midwiufcr, (December 19, IGOG,) that 

town. j^j^ expedition, one hundred strong, set out from 
England. A feeble band as regarded their individual re- 
sources, they were strong in the company by which they 
were sent to stranger shores. The voyage was long, by 
the common route of the West Indies, but Virginia was 
reached at last. The spring (May 13, 1607) saAV the 
beginning of the first English town in America. Its royal 
name of Jamestown is now a name alone, 
jje^y The company had hardly begun its work when 

charters, jt sought ucw powcrs. Three years after the 
patent, a second charter was framed, giving additional 
authority to the English company, and extending the 
American limits to the latitude of Philadelphia, (1G09.) 
Tiu-ee years later, (1612,) a third charter vested the powers 
of the company in a General Court of the members, and 
added the Bermuda Islands to their domains. If charters 
were all that the company needed in order to flourish, it 
bade fair to be great and enduring. 

The fortunes of the colony were less promising. Some- 



S8 PART I. 1492-1638. 

times at peace, sometimes at war* with the natives, 
of the sometimes contented, sometimes despairing amongst 
coiouy. ^i^eiyigeives, the colonists went through great vicis- 
situdes. One cause of feebleness is plain enough ; it is the 
entire dependence of the colony upon the company and the 
company's representatives. Another cause of equal mor 
ment was the variety of rank and of character in the 
colony. The gentleman and the felon, the ardent seeker 
after adventure and the patient toiler for subsistence, the 
freeman, the apprentice, and the slave,t made up a com- 
munity too mixed to possess any steadiness of growth. 
The three first years, (1G07-9,) the colonists hung upon 
John Smith, who had become their president in the year 
folloAving the settlement of Jamestown. It is curious to 
see how he led, rebuked, supported them; he, as .the strong 
man, guiding them, as feeble children. One year, (1610,) 
the colony is all but abandoned; another, (1613,) it is 
strong enough to make the attack already mentioned upon 
the French settlements in the north. But the tendency to 
increase, though interrupted, continues, and not without 
support from the company in England, 
institn- The first step to raise the colonists from a state 
tioiis. Qf mere vassalage was the grant of an estate to 
each settler, (1615.) The progress from the landholder 
to the freeman followed. The colony had been bound, 
as has been stated, to maintain the church of England. 
Its civil authorities consisted, first of the English crown 
and Parliament, then of the English council, then of 
the English company, by which, according to the various 
charters, the local officers were appointed. These were, in 
the beginning, a council, with a president ; but in a year or 
two from the beginning, a governor and suite, at first with- 

* The Indian wars arc related in Part II. Chapter lY. 

t A Dutch man of war brought the first negro slaves, in 1620. 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 29 

out and afterwards witli a council. At length, under the 
government of Sir George Yeiirdley, the freemen of the 
colony, representing eleven corporations or plantations, 
were called, as burgesses, to a General Assembly, to take 
the matter of taxes, besides other affairs of importance, 
into their own hands, (1619.) This was the system of 
the colonial constitution granted by the company two years 
afterwards, (1621.) In other words, the executive author- 
ity was in the hands of a governor, the judicial m those of 
a governor and a council, with an appeal to an Assembly, 
and the legislative in that of a governor, a council, and an 
Assembly, all subject to the company, which, of course, 
was subject to the laws and the authorities of England. 
An in- ^^^ ^^'^ ^P^ ^^ exaggerate the importance of the 

fant English settlements, in comparison with those of 
CO ony. ^j^^ French or the Spanish, or any other nation in 
our country. The truth is, that Virginia, like most of the 
settlements which we shall find in the north, was but an 
infant colony, unable to regulate its trade or its education, 
its habits of life or of thought, except in submission to 
external authorities. One or two examples, occurring under 
the company's jurisdiction, illustrate the dependence of the 
colony during the entire period of which we are now treat- 
ing. A design of a college for native as well as English 
youth, started in England with large subscriptions, found 
no fulfilment in Virginia, (1619-21.) Even the want of 
wives was met, not by individual devotion, but by a com- 
pany speculation ; a large number of young women of good 
character being transported to be sold for a hundred and 
twenty, or even a hundred and fifty pounds of tobacco (at 
three shillings a pound) to the lonely settlers, (1620-21.) 
Fall of Nothing, however, marks the utter dependence 

the com- of the colouy so plainly as its inactivity during the 
^^"^' troubles in which the company became involved. 
3* 



30 PART I. 1492-1638. 

Dissensions amongst the members, and jealousies amongst 
those who were not members, led to the royal interference ; 
the result being the fall of the- company, with all its exjien- 
ditures* heavy on its head, (1G24.) The colony at this 
time numbered about two thousand, the relics of nine thou- 
sand who had been sent out. Yet for all the two thousand 
did to prove their existence or their independence, the 
colony might have been supjDOsed to be the company's 
shadow, too unsubstantial to support or to oppose the 
power to which it owed its being. 

^. . Virginia became a royal province. The governor 
a royal and the council received their appointment from the 
province, j^jj^g^ ^]^g freemen continuing to elect their Assem- 
bly. It was a national government, instead of a corpora- 
tion system, and as such it seemed to relieve the Virginians. 
At any rate, they grew so much in spirit as to make a stand 
against the royal grant of what they considered their terri- 
tory to the proprietor of Maryland. Their governor, John 
Harvey, not taking part with them as they wished, they 
deposed him, and sent him virtually a prisoner to England, 
(1635.) The king, of course, restored the governor, but 
without reducing the colony to silence or to retribution, 
(1636-37.) The spirit of dependence, however, lingered. 
But the principles of growth and of independence 
of the were at work. Among the earliest settlers were 
coonj. ^^^ ^£ culture and of earnestness, men who, like 
Alexander Whitaker, " a scholar, a graduate, and a preach- 
er," devoted themselves to the elevation of the colony. 
Among the earliest governors were Lord De la Ware, 
(1611,) and Sir George Yeardley, (1619-21,) both of 
strong character and of strong influence. Around such 
individuals as these there would naturally gather an in- 

* From £100,000 to £150,000. 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 31 

creasing number and a liiglicr stamp of colonists. The 
interest of the mother country in the colony would natu- 
rally be extended when the dissolution of the company 
opened the way to general emigration and general enter- 
prise. The development of Virginia seemed sure. 

THE PLYJIOUTH C03IPANY. 

Mem- Among .the members of the Plymouth Company 

bers. were many personages of distinction. The lord 
chief justice of England, Sir John Popliam, the governor 
of Plymouth, Sir Ferdinando Gorges, and two Gilberts, 
kinsmen and successors of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and Sir 
Walter Raleigh, all engaged in the enterprise. The 
higher the rank, however, of individual members in any 
association, the more likely, in most cases, are clashing 
pretensions and menacing divisions. The Plymouth Com- 
pany never held together m such a way as to carry out 
any effective operations. 

Coioniza- ^ ^^^^ members made the first move by sending 
tion at- out a colony of forty-five persons, who encamped 
emp e . ^^^^ ^^^^ brief year upon an island at the mouth of 
the Kennebec, (1607-8.) Some time elapsed before any 
new expedition was undertaken. Nor would any, it is 
probable, have been undertaken then, but for the active 
agency of John Smith, -who, four or five years after his 
return from Virginia, entered the service of the Plymouth 
Company. A careful voyage from the Penobscot to Cape 
Cod impressed him so favorably, that he gave the country 
the name of New England, obtaining for himself the title 
of its admiral, (1614.) But his persevering exertions to 
discharge his office and to colonize his chosen land t\'^ere 
in vain ; nor was any thing more attempted by the com- 
pany until it was transformed by a new charter into the 



32 PART I. 1492-^1638. 

Council of Plymouth for New England, with the right 
to all the territory from the latitude of Philadelphia to 
that of Chaleur Bay, (1G20.) 

Yarious Even then, the Council for New England set on 
proprie- foot no colouizatiou of its own. Its energies 

tors and . .,.,,, 

compa- seemed to be spent ni makmg grants to individuals, 

mes. — some of them its members, — or to associations, 

by whom the settlement of New England was to be 

accomplished. Singular enough, considering that it was 

New England, a large proportion of these subordinate 

agencies was directed to the establishment of what may 

be called a number of lordly domains upon the soil. In 

following this succession of proprietors and of companies, 

we lose sight of the Council for New England. 

One settlement, originally made without a grant 

meat of fi'om the council, was by much the most important 

piym- for many years. It was on no laro^e scale. One 
outh. -^ -^ * 

hundred and two passengers in the Mayflower 

landed at a place already called New Plymouth, (Decem- 
ber 11, 1G20.) They were a band of Puritans, whose 
extreme principles had led to their exile, first from Eng- 
land to Holland, (1G08,) and then from Holland to 
America. Obtaining a grant from the London Company, 
they set sail for Virginia, but landed to the north of that 
province, in the limits of New England. The year follow- 
ing, they procured a patent from the Council for New 
England, (1621.) But not in their own name; the grant 
being made to one of a company of London merchants, 
with whom they had formed a partnership before sailing 
to the west. The Londoners, holding their title under the 
council, thus constituted a sort of company within a com- 
pany. Nor was it until after six years, marked by many 
troubles and by many injuries, that the colonists extricated 
themselves from this twofold dependence by the payment 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 33 

of a large sum to the London merchants, (1626.) The 
difficulties with the merchants had been the least of the 
trials of the Plymouth settlers. Half of the one hundred 
and t\yo of the Mayflower died within a year from the 
landing. " In the time of most distress," says the histo- 
rian of the settlement, Governor Bradford, " there were 
but six or seven sound persons." After disease came 
want ; " all their victuals were spent, and they were only 
to rest on God's providence ; at night not many times 
knowing where to have a bit of any thing the next day." 
"When a ship load of fresh immigrants arrived nearly two 
years after, " the best dish they," the earlier comers, " could 
present their friends with, was a lobster or a piece of fish, 
without bread or any thing else but a cup of fair spring 
M^ater." Nevertheless the Pilgrims, as they were called, 
sustained and extended their settlements. A second patent 
from the council was obtained for the country near the 
mouth of the Kennebec, where a trading post was presently 
established, (1628.) The whole extent of settlements, 
both at Plymouth and on the Keimebec, was included in 
a third patent, two years afterwards, (1630.) 

One who reads the history of these times witli- 
tinction ^^^^ personal or national prepossessions will not 
in las- ^j^(j r^y^y thing of a very extraordinary character 
in the settlement of Plymouth. They who came 
thither, braving the perils of the unknown sea and the 
unknown shore, were but doing what had been done by 
their countrymen in Virginia, and by others in other settle- 
ments in America. Solemnity is certainly imparted to 
their enterprise by the reflection that they came to main- 
tain the doctrines and laws which their consciences ap- 
proved, but which the authorities of England proscribed. 
Yet the Huguenots of Carolina had done the same thing 
more tlian half a century before. The true distinction 



34 PART I. 1492-1638. 

of the Puritans of Plymouth is this, that they relied 
upon themselves, that they adopted their own institutions 
and developed their OAvn resources, of course in a feeble, 
but not the less in a manly manner. Before they landed, 
they " covenant and combine themselves together into a 
civil body politic, to enact such just and equal laws as shall 
be thought most convenient for the general good of the 
colony." The state thus founded was continued in entire 
independence of external authority, except in so far as its 
territory was held by grants from the Council for New 
England. 

roiiticai The political forms of Plymouth were singu- 
forms. larly simple. Every settler of good character 
— that is, of the faith of the colony, and not an apprentice 
or a servant — was a freeman, a member of the body by 
which all affairs were administered or directed. An as- 
sembly of a representative character was not held for 
nearly twenty years, (1639.) Out of the freemen a 
smaller body was taken to exercise the every-day func-. 
tions of government. It was composed merely of the 
governor and his assistants, or council, of which he was 
simply the presiding officer with a double vote. The first 
governor was John Carver ; the second was William Brad- 
ford, who retained the post, with a few interruptions, for 
thirty-six years. It marks the simphcity, not to say the 
distastefulness, of these offices, that there should have 
])een a law subjecting a man not having served the pre- 
ceding year, and yet refusing to be governor, to a fine 
of twenty pounds, equivalent to a much larger amount 
in our day. A military body was headed by Miles Stan- 
dish, the hero of the settlement. 

„ . . But the spirit beneath these forms is of more 

importance than the forms themselves. The ear- 

ii<3st faith of the Puritans was at once the source from which 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 35 

the colony sprang, and the strength by which it grew. But 
it was also the principle of harsh and arbitrary measures. 
It transformed the exiles mto persecutors, many of whose 
companions found themselves again exiles, escaping from 
the mother country only to be thrust out from the sandy 
coasts and chilly hovels of the colony. 

Meantime New Ens^land was portioned out un- 

G rants. . ^ '- 

Attempt der various names. The secretary of the council, 
at gen- JqJ^jj Mason, called his ffrant Mariana, stretchins: 

eral gov- 7 o ' o 

ernment. from Salcm Rivcr to the head of the Merrimac, 
(1G21.) The lands between the Merrimac and the 
Kennebec were presently combined as Laconia, in a grant 
made to Mason in company with Sir Ferdinando Gorges, 
(1622.) The first settlement, however, in that neighbor- 
hood was made by some fishermen on the shore near 
Monhegan Island, beyond the Kennebec, and therefore 
independently of Mason and Gorges, (1G22.) The next 
year the sites of the later Portsmouth and Dover were 
occupied, each under a separate association, to which the 
two proprietors had partially transferred their claims, 
(1G23.) Meanwhile the Council for New England had 
been attempting great things, commissioning Captain Fran- 
cis West as " Admiral of New England," Captain Robert 
Gorges as " Governor General," and the Rev. William 
Morrell as " Overseer of Churches." The last named was 
a clergyman of the English church. " He had," says 
Governor Bradford, " I know not what power and author- 
ity of superintendency over other churches granted hira, 
and sundry instructions for that end, but he never showed 
it or made any use of it." " It should seem," says the 
stout Puritan, " he saw it was in vain ; he only spoke of 
it to some here at his going away." The governor general 
and the admu^al cut no better figure. The council, as if 
disgusted by the fate of their general officers, surrendeij^ji 



36 PART I. 1492-1638. 

their domains to chaos. New grants, within as well as 
without the limits of those already made, were issued by 
the council, or by members of the council ; the Avhole 
coast from Plymouth to the Penobscot being cut up with 
dividing and intersecting lines. 

Order began to be evolved. The partnership 
iiamp- between Mason and Ferdinando Gorges being dis- 
^'"!';, solved, (1629,) each obtained a new ci;rant for him- 

and New ? v v o 

Sonier- self. Masou gavc the name of New Hampshire to 
the tract between the Merrimac (afterwards be- 
tv,'een the Salem) and the Piscataqua Rivers. The dis- 
trict between the Piscataqua and the Kennebec was called 
Nev*/" Somersetshire by Gorges, who donned the title of 
Governor General of New England. " There was a con- 
cultation had," writes an Englishman at the time, " to send 
him tjiither with a thousand soldiers." The scheme of a 
general government was not yet abandoned, (1634.) 

A company of Puritans in England had some 
Ann and time before acquired a fishing station of the Plym- 
outh colony at Cape Ann, (1624.) Thither a few 
settlers were sent ; Roger Conant being soon after invited 
to be the governor, (1625.) He was a man of great 
spirit, who had found it prudent to leave Plymouth in 
consequence of his too liberal Puritanism, and who now 
sustained the puny colony on the cape by his courage and 
his judgment. Perceiving a much better position at Naum- 
keag, he removed thither, (1626,) and there held the 
ground with a few dispirited adherents until, in accord- 
ance with his recommendation, nearly a hundred settlers 
arrived from England under the conduct of John Endicott, 
(1628.) Endicott took the direction of the colony iis the 
agent of a new company, by which a grant of the tract 
between the Charles and the Merrimac Rivers had been 
procured from the Council for New England. The name 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 37 

of Naumkeag was changed to Salem in the ensmng year, 
(1620.) 

New associates having joined the enterprise, — 
of Mussa- John Winthrop, Isaac Johnson, and others of note 
ciuisetts from Boston, — a royal charter was procured for 
" The Governor and Company of the Massachu- 
setts Bay in New England." A governor, deputy govern- 
or, and eighteen assistants or councillors, were appointed 
to liold monthly courts and to conduct the affairs of admin- 
istration The members at large were to be convened 
from time to time in general courts, by which officers were 
to be chosen and laws enacted, subject only to the condition 
of conforminoj to the laws of Ensjland. No mention of 
religion or of religious liberty was made, it being out of 
the question for the Puritans to obtain the formal recog- 
nition of their own faith. Thus going behind the grant 
of the Council for New England, the Massachusetts associ- 
ation obtained an independent position, in the same char- 
acter that belonged to the council itself, as an English 
corporation. But four months after the date of the char- 
ter, it was decided, on the proposal of the governor, 
Matthew Cradock, "to transfer the government of the 
l)lantation to those that shall inhabit there," (July 28, 
1()"29.) This at once changed the corporation from an 
English to a colonial one. 

Reenforcements had been sent out to the colony 

Boston. '' 

at Salem,, (1G29.) But the accessions to the list 
were now so great as to suggest the mcrease of settlements. 
The appointment of Jolm Winthroj) as governor, under the 
transfer of the charter to the colony, was followed by " the 
great emigration," so called, of about one thousand, who, 
after tarrying at Salem and the neighboring Charlestown, 
voted " that Trimountam shall be called Boston," (Septem- 
])er 7, 1630,) and there took up their position at the centre 
4 



88 PAET I. 1492-1638. 

of Massachusetts Bay. The first General Court was held 
soon after, (October 19,) and from that time Boston took 
the lead of Massachusetts and of New England. It Avas 
entitled to do so in Massachusetts by the rank, the educa- 
tion, and the devotion of its settlers. It was entitled to do 
so in New England as the chief place in Massachusetts, 
then, and for many years after, the most important of all 
the English settlements. 

incieise '^^^^ "^^^ colouy grcw apacc. All around Bos- 
and inde- tou there Sprang up towns, some on spots previous- 
ptnc cute, j^ occupied by individuals or by parties, but many 
in districts hitherto unvisited. Each new settlement con- 
tributed to the increase and the independence of the colony. 
So independent in some respects did its position become, 
that the Council for New England, sometimes as a body 
and sometimes through its individual members, began to 
dread and to resist the rising power. There was full 
enough in the attitude of the Massachusetts colonists to 
warrant the suspicion of Sir Ferdinando Gorges, " that 
they would in short time wholly shake off the royal juris- 
diction of the sovereign magistrate." 

Charter "^^ colouy Certainly had ever been endowed with 
govern- similar powers. ChaMer government had hitherto 
been confined to companies in England. It was 
first inspii-ed with all its vitality in Massachusetts. As the 
government, not merely of a corporation, but of a state, it 
invested its holders with an authority independent of all 
besides a mere allegiance to the crown and the law of the 
mother land. The officers elsewhere, as in tlie royal prov- 
ince of Virginia, appointed in England, were here elected 
on the spot, and by those over whom they were to preside. 
Governor, council, and assembly, all belonged to and pro- 
ceeded from the freemen. With them resided every form 
of authority, save only the distant and the indefinite shapes 
of royal and parliamentary supremacy. 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 39 

Puritan ^^ ^^^ ^^ means followed that the government 
princi- was a liberal one. AYliatever it might appear to 
^^^' be in the abstract, its operation was rigidly con- 
trolled by Puritan principles. These narrowed its sphere 
and stiffened its action. An early vote declared no one a 
freeman under the charter who was not a church member, 
(1631.) As but a small proportion of the inhabitants were 
church members, there were less freemen than non-free- 
men. The privileges of the charter being thus restricted 
to the pale of the church, the church and the state became 
virtually one. The elders of the church, clerical and lay, 
were as much magistrates as the magistrates themselves. 
External Sucli a systcni favorcd the independence of the 
relations, colouy in its relations with the mother country; 
indeed, in all external relations. It made the colony 
strong in itself, relying upon its own resources, providing 
for its own wants. The villages of Massachusetts were 
hardly begun, its fields were hardly turned up by the 
plough, when the General. Court "agree to give four hun- 
dred pounds towards a school or college," (1636.) This 
was subsequently located at Cambridge, and named after 
its first private benefactor, John Harvard, a clergyman of 
Charlestown, (1638.) The same year of the grant from 
the court, when such a sacrifice for the future must have 
strained the entire colony, the offer of certain noblemen to 
join the settlers, on condition of preserving their hereditary 
honors, was rejected, (1636.) All the while the colony 
was contending against the machinations of its adversaries 
in and out of the Council for New England. The charter, 
threatened again and again, was at length demanded back ; 
but the men of Massachusetts stood firm, and it was spared, 
(1634-38.) 

Internal The internal relations of the colonists were by 
relations, jjq means equally secure. The system that cut 



40 PART I. 1492-1638. 

clown the charter itself was not likely to respect the devel- 
opment of the individual. The ^ very members of the 
ruling class were under the most rigid restraint. John 
Eliot, afterwards the missionary to the Indians, was obliged 
to retract the censures which he passed upon the magis- 
trates for making an Indian treaty without consulting the 
freemen, (1634.) Israel Stoughton, a deputy, who ven- 
tured to write against the pretensions of the magistrates to 
a negative upon the General Court, was forced! to ask that 
his manuscript " be burned as weak and offensive," and 
was then excluded from office for three years, (1635.) 
Roger Williams, denying the power of the magistrates 
to compel attendance upon their form of service, or to 
bind the conscience by human laws, was driven into exile, 
(1635.) It marks the spirit of the place, that even Roger 
Williams, the professed advocate of religious liberty, should 
have transgressed the very principle which he advocated, 
by forbidding his wife to pray with him because she would 
not join his scission from the church at Salem. These 
were all individual instances. There presently arose a 
party in opposition to the dominant system. It was led by 
a woman, Anne Hutchinson ; but many of the principal 
men united with her in setting up what they termed a 
" covenant of grace " against the " covenant of works " 
upheld by the Puritan rulers. The leaders of the party 
were all banished, (1638.) One cannot Avonder that Wil- 
liam Blackstone, an early settler, who first invited the 
Massachusetts emigrants to settle at Boston, should retu*e 
before them, exclaiming, " I left England because I liked 
not the lord bishops, and now I like not the lord brethren." 
Coiiiic'c- The Massachusetts people were already emigrat- 
ticut. jj-,g^ j^ neighboring territory, conveyed by the Coun- 
cil for New England to the Earl of Warwick, passed into 
the hands of Lord Say and Seal, Lord Brook, and others, 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 41 

(1632.) Upon their domain, a party from Plymouth 
established a trading post, (1633,) while another and 
a larger company from Massachusetts founded actual 
settlements at Windsor and Hartford, together called the 
Connecticut colony, (1635.) John Wintlu'op, son of the 
Massachusetts governor, and afterwards governor of Con- 
necticut, led the first expedition on the part of the proprie- 
tors, and began a settlement at Saybrook, (1635.) A third 
colony was begun, a year or two later, by emigrants from 
England under the lead of John Davenport and Theophilus 
Eaton, who, intending to settle in Massachusetts, were 
driven by the dissensions of that colony to New Haven, 
(1638.) 

Provi- Connecticut was not the only colony to profit by 

dence the strifcs in Massachusetts. Roger Williams, the 
Rhode exile, began the plantation of Providence, (1636.) 
Island, ^g ^.j^g founder of a colony, with the consent of the 
natives, to whom, as well as to his persecuting countrymen, 
he was a faithful friend, Williams deserves a far higher 
fame than he would ever have won as an agitator. He 
was followed by some of the Hutchinson exiles, who began 
a second colony on the northern shore of the island since 
called Rhode Island, (1638.) They, like Williams, ob- 
tained their lands from the natives. 

The Council for New England, with or without 
tion of whose patents so many settlements had been made, 
tho coun- ^yj^g j^Q^y jjQ more. Opposed by the advocates of a 
free fishery and a free trade, it had lately met with 
fresh assaults from those who regarded the churches of 
Plymouth and of Massachusetts as the offspring of schism 
and of sin. The council was weary of itself. Its efforts 
after a general government of the colonies had miscarried. 
Its grants had ceased to be in demand ; indeed, in an 

honest point of view, there were no more to be made. Its 

4 * 



42 PART 1. 1492-1638. 

members, however, thought differently, and having once 
more parcelled out the territory of New England amongst 
themselves, they surrendered their patent to the crown, 
(1635.) 

End of Thus ended the companies created by the patent 
compa- of Virginia. One, lasting but eighteen years, be- 
gan the single colony of Virginia. The other, con- 
tinuing eleven years more, did not found a solitary settle- 
ment. It saw, however, quite a number of settlements 
made by others under its grants or upon its lands. The 
only office that either company had fulfilled, was to clear 
the way for individual enterprise. This done, both fell, 
and without a regret from any side. 

Position When the Virginia Company came to an end, its 
of New colony was declared a royal province. No such 
"°'^'^ ■ change ensued upon the dissolution of the Council 
for New England. Massachusetts, the chief settlement in 
the territory, was already provided with a royal charter. 
The other settlements were too insignificant to attract legis- 
lation, even if they attracted attention from England. Many 
of them, like Plymouth, were able to govern themselves. 
The rest would be provided for in time. 
Thomas It, was plain, however, that the New England 
Morton, colouics needed some other system than they had 
to establish their relations amongst themselves. An in- 
stance in point occurs in the case of Thomas Morton " of 
Clifford's Inn, gentleman,'^ as he called himself Taking 
the lead of a few settlers encamped at Mount Wollaston, 
near Boston, he gave the hill the name of Mare-Mount, 
of which he styled himself " Mine Host," (1626.) The 
use of the church liturgy and the confidence of the Indians, 
whom he employed as his huntsmen, gave great umbrage 
to the neighboring colonists, the more so that he led a free 
and easy, perhaps a sensual, life upon his mount, and thus 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 43 

attracted numbers from the surrounding settlements. A 
sort of crusade was started by " the chief of the straggUng 
plantations," as Governor Bradford of Plymouth describes 
them ; Plymouth, at their request, assuming the lead, and 
sending a party under Miles Standish to take Morton 
prisoner. He was sent to England, (1628.) As he had 
the audacity to return, he was apprehended by the authori- 
ties of the infant colony of Massachusetts Bay, wdiose char- 
ter covered his territory. The court ordered him to " be 
set m the bilboes, and after sent prisoner to England," his 
goods being seized and his house burned for wrongs, it was 
alleged, that had been done to the Indians, (IGoO.) After 
appealing to the privy council by petition, and to the Eng- 
lish nation in a work called " New English Canaan," Mor- 
ton returned again to encounter fine and imprisonment, 
(1643,) and to die in poverty, (1646.) Whatever were 
his faults, whether " the lord of misrule," as his adversaries 
represented him, or not, Thomas Morton was certainly 
handled by his fellow-colonists in a way the most opposed 
to justice and to peace. 

Section III. — Proprietors. 1G30 to 1638. 

Grant of ^ ^^^ form of grant appears. Hitherto, the 
Mary- individual obtaining possession of territory j^ro- 
cured it, like Mason or like Gorges, from a com- 
pany to whose authority the acquisition was subject. It 
w^as by a patent from the crown that Sir George Calvert, 
Lord Baltimore, was made " lord and proprietor " of a 
tract between the Potomac River and the latitude of Phila- 
delphia, (1632.) To this he gave the name of Maryland, 
and thither, to a settlement named St. Mary's, his son, after 
the father's death, led a band of two hundred, (1634.) 
Thus was constituted a proprietary government. The 



44 PAET I. 1492-1638. 

proprietor held an authority that was supreme, save 
etaiy gov- in its subordination to the sovereign from whom it 
ernment. ^^^j^^^q^^ Hq directed the administration and the 
legislation of the colony, appointing the executive officers, 
the governor, especially, as his representative, and control- 
ling the proceedings of the colonists in their assemblies. 
To him likewise belonged the quitrents, or taxes upon 
occupied lands, in addition to the general taxes for the 
support of the government. The colonists, on their part, 
— that is, " the freemen of the province," — were to have 
their assembly, in which their " advice, consent, and appro- 
bation " mighty be given or withheld in relation to the 
course of the proprietor. 

Religious ^^ with other settlements, so with Maryland, 
liberty, tlicrc are exaggerations in some of the histories. 
A vast deal of fine writing has been devoted to the magna- 
nimity with which the Maryland charter provided for 
religious liberty. The instrument makes no mention of 
the subject, or of the establishment of religion, except to 
leave the matter to the proprietor, subject on this point, as 
on others, to the laws of England. Tlie Calvert family, 
being Roman Catholic, could not make their own faith 
paramount, nor would they, perhaps, have done so, even if 
they could. They wanted settlers of all creeds, whose 
numbers and whose energies alone could give real value 
to their domains. It was simply a matter of policy, there- 
fore, with the proprietary family, to let the question of 
religion rest exactly where it was left by the charter. We 
may hope that they were not merely politic enough, but 
generous enough, even in an age which knew little of 
generosity, to throw open their province to Christians, with- 
out any limitation in favor of one branch or of another. 
Trou- The colony, young as it was, fell into troubles. 

^^^^- Its assembly began to make laws without waiting 



ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS. 45 

for the proprietor's legal initiative. At the same time, 
both proprietor and assembly were involved in disturbances 
excited by a member of the Virginia council, William 
Clayborne. Virginia herself took it ill that her territory 
should be invaded even by royal grants. Clayborne con- 
ceived his rights to be assailed, inasmuch as he, individual- 
ly, had established trading posts within the Maryland limits. 
'Taking up arms against the colony, he was overpowered, 
and sent back to Virginia, (1635.) 

Other proprietors, besides those of Maryland, 
propric- wcrc in the field. Sir Robert Heath, attorney 
general to Charles I., obtained the patent of a 
vast region on the south of Virginia, and as far as the Gulf 
of Mexico. This he called Carolana, (1G30.) Another 
tract, called New Albion, and including the present New 
Jersey, was conveyed in an irregular instrument from the 
viceroy of Ireland to Sir Edward Plowden, as an carl 
palatine, (168G.) These were but grants, not settlements, 
yet significant of the growing pretensions of England to 
the soil of America. 

No other nation of Europe, it need hardly be 
sion. suggested, had made any settlements, individual, 
English associated, or national, at all comparable to those 

motives. 

of the English. Nor had there been any such 
definite purposes of settlement, separate from mere adven- 
ture, on the part of any other race. The English settler 
was emphatically a settler, rather than a treasure seeker or 
a conqueror, a missionary or a trader. Not that he shrank 
from other enterprises, but that his main motive was to 
gain a home, and an abiding one, in the western world. 
Acting in harmony with this were the desire to escape from 
oppression or from want, the yearning after a new faith or 
a new life, the various impulses that have appeai^ed, it is 



46 PART I. 1492-1638. 

hoped, in the preceding pages. That there were baser 
instincts tending to the same end has also appeared. 
institii- The institutions of the EngHsh were favorable to 
tions. ^j^gij. purposes as settlers. The subjects of a limit- 
ed monarchy, they brought with them the habits and the 
laws of comparative freemen. That they might have been 
freer in their political principles, needs not to be suggested 
anew. But in their varying charters, in their varying 
mao-istrates and tribunals, even in the least liberal, the 
English colonists possessed privileges to which neither the 
Frenchman nor the Spaniard in their neighborhood had 
ever actually aspired. 

Circum- Of an equally encouraging description were the 
stances, circumstanccs of the English. The seaboard was 
theirs, all at least that they could immediately occupy. 
The portion which they possessed was partly in the north 
and partly in the south, provided, therefore, with the re- 
sources of both regions, at the same time that it was not 
exposed either to the indulgence of the extreme south or 
to the privation of the extreme north. Within opened an 
interior region rich in its streams, its fields, its forests, its 
mountains ; without lay the broad sea, accessible at a hun- 
dred harbors. Whatever mere position could effect was 
promised to the English settlers. 

English As yet they had but begun the w^ork before 
names, them. Their humble towns on the coast, their 
humbler villages and hamlets in the country, gave small 
token of their destinies. But the names of their territories 
were full of strength and of grandeur. There was New 
Albion on the Pacific, New Albion on the Atlantic. There 
was the land of Queen Elizabeth — Virginia ; there was 
the land of the nation — New England. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Dutch Settlements. 

Group of A LATER group of scttlei's comes forward. It is 
traders, composed iiot SO miicli of settlers, however, as of 
traders, who, to carry out their commercial operations, lay 
the foundations of a state, and give it the name of their 
nation. 

Spirit in The spiHt of the preceding half century in Hol- 
iioiianii. \r^^^^i j^j^j been that of a people rescuing themselves 
from a foreign dominion and building up a power of their 
o^^'n. Europe has nothing so brilliant upon its records at 
the time as the war of independence which the Nether- 
lands v/aged, and waged successfully, against Spain. It 
might have been argued that such a nation would have 
surpassed all others in America. 
T, . „ , But it was not so. The Dutch came late upon 

Dwindled ^ ^ 

in Ameri- the sccuc. They came, moreover, not with the 
spirit or the law of their nation so much as with 
those of the commercial companies by which they were 
sent out or controlled. The story of their settlements is 
therefore an anomaly in the history of American coloni- 
zation. The fire of the mother-land languishes in the 
colony. It is because the colony is not a national, but a 
corporate settlement, from its beginning to its end. 
Hudson's "^^^^ ^'^^T y^^^^ ^^^ which Holland became inde- 
voyage. pendent, (1G09,) Henry Hudson, an Englishman 
in Dutch employ, sailed in search of a northern passage to 



48 PART I. 1492-1638. 

the Pacific. Shut out by the ice from his projected course, 
he steered westward, and reaching the coast of Maine, 
cruised southward as far as Virginia, giving to Cape Cod, 
on the way, the name of New Holland. As he returned 
towards the north, he discovered Delaware Bay, and entered 
the River of the Mountains, as he called the stream since 
known by his own name. These waters, first visited, per- 
haps, by Cabot in the Enghsh, (1498,) then by Verrazzani 
in the French, (1524,) and then by Gomez in the Spanish 
(1525) service, were now more thoroughly explored by 
Hudson. As their discoverer, he returned -to Holland, and 
as their possessors, the Dutch sent out various vessels to 
trade with the natives and to claim the shores, (1610-13.) 

The earliest of tlie Dutch posts was on the Island 
of New ^ of Manhattan, (1613.) There the first crail of Eu- 
^m^^^' ropean construction was built and launched by 
Adrian Block, whose ship had been destroyed by 
fire. In his Manhattan vessel, appropriately called the Rest- 
less, Block went through Long Island Sound as far as Cape 
Cod, then, leaving his name for Block Island, he returned 
home, (1614.) The prospects of the new country looking 
well, the association of Amsterdam and Hoorn merchants, 
by whom Block and other explorers had been employed, 
gave it the name of New Netherland, and applied to the 
States General for protection in their enterprise. This 
was obtained, in the shape of an exclusive right for three 
years " to visit and penetrate the said lands lying in Ameri- 
ca between New France and Virginia, whereof the coasts 
extend from the fortieth to the forty-fifth degrees of lati- 
tude;" that is, from Delaware to Passamaquoddy Bay. 
The association, taking the name of the United New Neth- 
erland Company, set themselves to work, (1614.). A fort 
was built at Manhattan ; a fortified trading post was estab- 
lished up t'he river, near the present Albany, (1615.) 



DUTCH SETTLEMENTS. 49 

Meanwhile the little Restless, commanded by Cornelius 
Ilendricksen, was exploring the coast to the southward, 
and ascending the Delaware, then called the South River, 
to distinguish it from the North, or Prince Maurice's River, 
as the Hudson was variously styled. 

The monopoly of the New Netherland Com- 

Proposals . , "^ , . i . , ^ i 

of the pany expu-mg without their being able to ob- 
I'lyinouth ^^^^ j^g renewal, other parties entered into the 

Pun tans. ' ^ 

trading operations of which the colony was the 
centre. But the old company, or rather a portion of its 
members, retained a sort of vantage ground. To them, ac- 
cordingly, the Puritan exiles in Holland — the same who 
settled Plymouth — addressed their proposals of emigrating 
to New Netherland. The party to whom the application 
was made petitioned the States General that the Puritans 
might be taken under the national protection, in which 
case the petition asserts " upwards of four hundred families " 
*' from this country and from England " would settle in the 
Dutch colony, (February, 1620.) The prayer of the pe- 
titioners was refused. 
„, ,^ The New Netherland Company had ceased to 

^\ est In- _ ^ •^ 

diaCom- be a body in which the nation confided. An old 
p=iny- project of a West India Company was revived, and 
a corporation of that name established, with power, not 
only over New Netherland, but the entire American coast, 
(1621.) It was some time before the company began its 
operations; but when it did begin, it was evidently in 
earnest, (1623.) 

Walloon Ten years had elapsed since the trading post on 
colony. Manhattan had been occupied, and there were still 
none but trading posts in all New Netherland. Not a 
colony worthy of the name as yet existed. The only plan 
that had ever been formed of establishing one came from 
the Plymouth Puritans. It is a singular coincidence that 



50 PART I. 1492-1638. 

the first colony to be actually established was one of ref- 
ugees, like the Puritans, from persecution. These were a 
band of Protestant Walloons, from the Spanish Nether- 
lands, who, after applying unsuccessfully to the London 
Company of England, enlisted as colonists under the West 
India Company of Holland. Sent out in the first expe- 
dition of the company, they settled at Waal-bogt, or Wal- 
loons' Bay, on the western shore of Long Island, (1623- 
24.) Their settlement stands out amidst the surrounding 
trading posts as the one spot of home life in New Nether- 
land. But it was a feeble settlement, and feeble it con- 
tinued, although recruited by fresh fugitives from beyond 
the sea. 

^Tew Am- The company was by no means absorbed in its 
sterdam. ^vValloons. On the contrary, it was erecting forts, 
one on the North River, another on the South, and pres- 
ently, the chief of all on Manhattan Island, (1626.) Pur- 
chasing the entire island from the natives for no less than 
twenty-four of our dollars, Peter Minuit, the company's 
director, commenced the erection of a fort, with some sur- 
rounding dwellings, to which the name of New Amster- 
dam was subsequently applied. This settlement was to 
New Netherland the same principal place that it has since 
become as New York to the United States. Other forts 
were gradually raised ; that of Good Hope upon the Con- 
necticut, and that of Beversrede upon the Schuylkill, 
(1633.) The dominion of the company was in force upon 
the soil not only of New York, but of Connecticut, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, and all within ten 
years of its fii*st operations. 

But upon this vast surface the company's settle- 

ments were as dots. Several of them, mdeed, had 

been obliterated, and of those that remained, hardly one 

besides New Amsterdam was any thing more than a sta- 



DUTCH SETTLEMENTS. 51 

tion for trade. New Amsterdam itself was only a com- 
mercial settlement. Other posts of the same character had 
been begun, but the colony, as a whole, was in a languish- 
ing condition ; the company, of course, being disappointed 
in their expectations of rich returns. To advance their 
interests, they offered a slice of territory and the title of 
jmtroon to any one who, within a given period, would 
settle a given number of colonists upon lands bought of the 
natives, (162D.) This regard for the Indians was not the 
only proof of liberality in the patroon system, as it may be 
styled. The support of a clergyman and a schoolmaster, 
with that of a " comforter for the sick," was especially en- 
joined as one of the conditions to be fulfilled by the pa- 
troons. But mixed up with the more generous provisions 
were others of a very opposite nature. The fur trade, 
the great attraction of New Netherland, was reserved ex- 
clusively to the company. Pain of banishment was to de- 
ter the colonists from "making woollen, linen, or cotton 
cloths." " As many negroes as can be conveniently pro- 
vided " M^ere promised to the Dutch settlers. All the while, 
the patroons were constituted a class of feudal lords, as 
threatening to their superiors in the company as to their 
inferiors in the colony. Large purchases were made by 
individuals, (1629-31.) and som-e settlements were attempt- 
ed, the chief being those of Rensselaerswyck, near Albany, 
Pavonia, opposite Manhattan Island, and Swaanendael, on 
the Delaware. Some of these reverted to the company ; 
some disappeared. 

Eugiish Spain and France, as we have read, had their 
claims, pretensions to the soil of New Netherland. But 
the only power to dispute the Dutch possession was Eng- 
land. Tradition asserts that the same Captain Argal who 
destroyed the French settlement in Maine visited the huts 
on Manhattan Island, as he was returning to Virginia, and 



52 PART I. 1492-1638. 

compelled the few Dutchmen whom he found there to ac- 
knowledge the English supremacy, (1613.) This is un- 
certain ; but it is certain that when the New Netherland 
Company appealed to the States General in behalf of 
the Plymouth Puritans, they represented the danger of 
the colony's being surprised by an expedition sent to sup- 
port the claims of England, (1620.) The Council for New 
England was soon engaged in appeaHng to the Privy 
Council against what they deemed to be an invasion of 
their territory. The appeal was received, and an order 
of inquiry into the circumstances went to the British 
ambassador in Holland. He replied that there was as yet 
no Dutch colony upon the soil, (1621.) But as time 
passed, and colonies were founded, the suspicions of the 
English, both in England and in America, were revived. 
A correspondence, opened by Peter Minuit, director of 
New Amsterdam, with AVilliam Bradford, governor of New 
Plymouth, stirred the Englishman to ask that the Dutch 
should trade no more in his neighborhood; and furtlier, 
that they should clear their title to trade or to settle in any 
part of the country at all. No wonder that Minuit applied 
to the company in Holland for forty soldiers, (1627.) On 
his voyage home, a few years later, Minuit and his ship 
were detained on touching at Plymouth in England, and 
to the remonstrance of the Dutch embassy, the British 
ministry formally opposed the title of Great Britain to 
New Netherland, (1632.) It was soon after that the 
English settlements in Connecticut began to crowd upon 
the fort of the Dutch, (1633-38,) while a direct invasion 
of Delaware was made from Virginia, (1635.) This was 
repelled ; but the soil of Connecticut could not be retained. 
Tmdeof "^^^^ colony was still a colony of traders. No 
the coio- £renerous vicAvs, no manly energies, were as yet 
excited amonirst its inhabitants or its rulers. From 



DUTCH SETTLEMENTS. 53 

the slave to the colonist, from the colonist to the patroon, 
from the patroon to the director, and even from the direct- 
or to the company, there was little besides struggling for 
pecuniary advantages. It was esteemed a great era in the 
colony when, after various dissensions, its trade was nomi- 
nally thrown open. But the percentages to the company 
were such as to prevent any really free trade, (1638.) 
5* 



CHAPTER VII. 

Swedish Settlements. 

Last of all to claim a share as a nation in our 
Gusta- territory were the Swedes. Their fiir-sighted and 
vus Adoi- large-hearted king, Gustavus Adolphus, the champi- 
on of the Protestant cause in Europe, caught up the 
idea of supporting the same cause in America. " It is 
the jewel of my kingdom," he wrote just before he died, 
concerning the settlement that was yet to be, (1632.) 

The jewel of Gustavus received its setting from 
stiem t^^^ regent of his infant daughter Christina, the 
calls in Chancellor Oxenstiern. With the same loftiness of 

Germany. . . ■, n ■, ^. 

View, — preparmg a state that was to be of benent to 
" all Christendom," — Oxenstiern invited and obtained the 
cooperation of Protestant Germany, (1634.) The Swedish 
West India Company was to be the instrument by which 
the north of Europe, as well as Sweden, was to be linked 
to America. It was a design of greater ends and of broad- 
er motives than had as yet been formed for the new 
world. 
Results. ^^^ ^^^ results bore no proportion to the plans. 

It was not to be expected that such colonists as 
could be found in Sweden would embrace the same wide 
objects as their regent or their king. They would enhst 
only in an enterprise that promised personal as well as 
national returns. Some years passed before any settlement 
was attempted, and then a colony of only twenty-four, and 

(54) 



SWEDISH SETTLEMENTS. 55 

these chiefly transported convicts, was established at Fort 
Christina, near the present Wilmington in Delaware, 
(1638.) The territory, which was purchased of the In- 
dians, extended on either side of the fort, along the western 
shore of Delaware Bay, and up the Delaware River as far 
as Trenton, under the name of New Sweden. 
Opposing To tliis the Swedes had been guided by Peter 
claims. Mmuit, lately of New Netherland. His recom- 
mendation of lands previously purchased and occupied, 
though just at this time unoccupied, by his countrymen, 
involved the Swedish colony in immediate difficulties. A 
remonstrance from the governor of New Netherland against 
the invasion of his province was supported in Holland by 
the seizure of a Swedish vessel touching at a Dutch port 
on its way home. The English had their pretensions like- 
wise to the lands appropriated by the new colony. On 
each side were conflicting claims. With feeble numbers* 
and with scanty supplies, the Swedes would find it difficult 
to keep their New Sweden. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Indian Kaces. 

European The roll of European races establishing tliem- 
races. ggj^^g independently upon our soil was filled up 
by Spain, France, England, Holland, Sweden, and, with 
Sweden, Germany. After the Swedish colony of 1638, 
no national settlement was made by any nation not already 
upon the scene. 

Indian It IS time, therefore, to take an account of the 

races. ^.^^^g ^j^^|. occupied the country before any of those 
from Europe entered upon their possessions. The share 
of the Indians in our history endures, though their share 
in our territory wastes away. 

Names * "^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ Columbus that he had merely redis- 
and num- covcrcd India gave the name of Indians to the 
existing inhabitants of the continent. Within the 
limits of our country they Avere divided into four grand 
divisions, as the Algonquins, the Iroquois, the Mobilians, 
and the Dahcotas. The last name includes the tribes 
west of the Mississippi, of which, in the early period, the 
number could not have been at all considerable. Neither 
were the three divisions lying east of the Mississippi by 
any means numerous. The entire number is estimated to 
have been under three hundred thousand, and perhaps not 
above two hundred thousand, at the time of the first Eu- 
ropean settlements. Take from the whole the large part 
which had little or no connection with any of the European 

(56) 



INDIAN RACES. 57 

races, and the Indian population dwindles, to small propor- 
tions. It seems strange that so few, and these few savages, 
should have exercised so great an influence upon so many, 
and these many civilized. But it will be accounted for 
by a I'apid survey of the Indian divisions and the Indian 
resources. 

Aigon- First of the Algonquins. The central tribe of 

quins. ^j^jg y^g|. y..^^,Q ^^^g ^j^g Lcnni-Lcnape, which, occu- 
pying the shores of the Delaware, went by the name of 
Delawares amongst the English. The name of Lenni- 
Leuape, meaning Aborigines, is supposed to mark them as 
the parent stock of the Algonquins. The shoots of the 
race were enormously spread. Starting far up in the north, 
they stretch through New England, as the Abenakis, the 
Pawtuckets, the Massachusetts, the Pokanokets, the Narra- 
gansets, the Pequots, and the Mohegans. Thence they 
may be traced as the Manhattans of New York, the Sus- 
quehannas and the Nanticokes of Pennsylvania and Mary- 
land, the Powhatans of Virginia, and the Pamlicos of South 
Carolina. Towards the west they appear as the Ottawas 
of Michigan, the Miamis of Ohio and Indiana, the Illinois 
of Illmois, and the Shawanoes of Kentucky. Long as this 
list is, it embraces but a portion of the names to be found 
in any full record of the Algonquins. 

Next of the L'oquois. The centre of this divis- 

Iroquois. 

ion was among the lakes of Western New York, 
where the Five Nations of the Mohawks, the Oneidas, the 
Onondagas, the Cayugas, and the Senecas established their 
confederacy. To the west and north-west of the Five Na- 
tions lay their conquests of after years, the lands of the 
Eries, of the Ilurons, and of other tribes. The prowess 
or the intrigue of the Iroquois had ah'eady subdued the 
great tribe of the Algonquins, the Lenni-Lenape. Far to 
the south, partly in Virginia and partly in Carolina, wer& 



58 PART I. 1492-1638. 

the Tuscaroras, who, at a later period, migrated to unite 
with their brethren in the north, making six nations of 
the five. 

Lastly, of the Mobilian division. It was broken 

Mobilians. 

up amongst the Yamassees of Georgia ; the Musk- 
hogees or Creeks of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida ; the 
Seminoles of Florida, with the inland tribes of Catawbas 
in South Carolina, Cherokees in Georgia and Alabama, 
Choetaws, Natchez, and Chickasaws in Alabama and Mis- 
sissippi. 

Customs There was but one line of wide distinction 
aud insti- amongst thcsc various tribes. It separated those 

who lived by the chase alone from those who lived 
not only by the chase, but by agriculture. The former 
class, of course, was the ruder of the two ; yet the customs 
and the institutions of both were much the same. The 
Indian was every where a hunter, every where a warrior. 
If he was any thing else, if he attempted agriculture or 
trade, he seemed to be out of his element. The habits of 
civilized life were a burden, sometimes a destruction to him. 
This is true of all the tribes upon our soil ; the only cus- 
toms to which tliisy took, and by which they held, were 
those of the wilderness, or, at the best, of the field. Their 
institutions were comparatively advanced. Gathered with 
liis kinsmen in a totem or clan, then with other clans in a 
tribe, then perhaps with other tribes in a confederacy, the 
Indian was as much a member of a nation as the European. 
Above him were his chiefs, the hereditary sachems of peace, 
and the chosen lenders of war. Their sway and his rights 
rested together on laws, unwritten, but not undetermined. 
Tlie devotion shown to these relations and to these institu- 
tions was that of true patriots, as well as true savages. It 
sustained the Indians through trials under which more 
civilized nations have much sooner succumbed. Had it 



INDIAN RACES. 59 

been united with a civilization, or ratlier a religion, by 
which the different tribes could have been blended in *one, 
beneath better statutes and holier influences, the Indian 
race would have left no space for the European. 

We can now appreciate the influence of the In- 
Tipon^th? ^i*^ upon the European. Though far from being 
*^"ro disciplined, though still farther from being concen- 
trated, the natives of our soil would not encounter 
an invader without leaving an abiding mark upon him and 
upon his destiny. If not numerous in proportion to the 
vast regions over wliich they were spread, they were mul- 
titudinous in proportion to the scanty settlements of the 
stranger. He, moreover, was in an untried land, they in 
one which they had occupied from infancy. 

Had there been nothing else to make the Indians 
influence formidable, the treatment which they received would 
upon the havc bccu Sufficient. The white men came, if not 

Indian. -, i ■, • - • , 

to drag the red man nito captivity, or to ransack 
his stores, at any rate to occupy his lands. This was done, 
sometimes with and sometimes without the show of justice. 
If any nation deserves credit above another, it is not the 
English, not their Puritan or their Quaker branches, as 
frequently boasted, but the Dutch of New Netherland. 
Nowhere, however, do we find more than the pretence of 
even dealing with the natives. The intercourse thus opened 
M^as continued in much the same fashion. The Spaniards 
and the French had greater numbers, proportionally, of 
missionaries amongst the Indians ; the French, whether 
missionaries or not, were on comparatively good terms with 
many of the tribes about them. But there are no excep- 
tions to the general course of the Indian from the time that 
he encountered the European. Scorn, treachery, degrada- 
tion, were his portion ; fury and savage warfare were his 
revenge. Of the Lidian wars we shall take notice here- 
after. 



(50 PART I. 1492-1638. 

African ^^ ^lic Indian drooped beneath the blight of the 
racejt stranger, and became a dependant where his fotliers 
had been free and powerful, he came in contact with anoth- 
er race also in dependence upon the European. This was 
the African race, introduced into Virginia the same year 
that the Puritans came to Plymouth, bondmen from the 
beginning and until now. 

The coun- -^.nd here, as we have completed the enumeration 
*^"J'- of the races in the country, it behoves us to give a 

glance at the country itself, vari^ and wide enough, as it 
must have seemed, for many colonies, or many nations. 
Although as yet the seaboard alone was occupied, the vast 
reaches of the interior, the stretching plains, the penetrat- 
ing rivers, were descried. Different prospects, different 
attractions, different influences, opened in all directions, 
betokening that the various races here thro^vn together 
would have no want of development amongst themselves — 
no want, it must be added, of strife with one another. 



CHAPTER IX. . 

EUKOPE FROM 1492 TO 1638. 

The great -^T the discovery of America, there was but one 
change, church amongst the Christians of Europe. There 
were several churches amongst them when America was 
settled. It was the great change of the century and a half 
that had passed away. 

The reformation of the Catholic church, while 

Its cause 

and char- under the supremacy of Rome, had been the prayer 
^''^^'' of many a devout heart. The more faithful the 
churchman, the more sensitive he was to the corruption 
and to the oppression existing in a body of which the liber- 
ty and the purity were alike sacred in his eyes. But he 
had nowhere conceived it necessary to break the church 
asunder in order to reform it ; he was rather the champion 
of a closer union than existed amongst Christians. The 
rupture of the church was brought about, not by the re- 
former, but by the anti-reformer. Every where opposed, 
if not crushed, the reformers of successive periods met with 
a fate that did but increase the tendency which it was in- 
tended to arrest. The demand for reform became more 
and more earnest, more and more imperative. Still refused, 
still met by persecution, it was supported by sterner spirits 
and by more violent deeds, until the crisis came, bringing 
not only reformation, but division. 

Luther's The coursc of things in general appears in the 
course, experience of the individual who led the outbreak 
6 (61) 



62 PART I. 1492-1638. 

of the reformation, especially so called. When Martin 
Luther, an Augustine monk of Wittenberg, in Saxony, 
hung up on the church door a paper of ninety-five theses, or 
propositions, against the doctrine of indulgence, that is, of 
absolution without repentance, he was " a papist," as he him- 
self said, "of tlie deepest dye," with no other object than 
that of saving the church as it was, (1517.) But rejected, 
buffeted, assailed in his purposes of reform, he threw off 
the yoke of Rome in three years' time, burning the papal 
bull of excommunication, and dividing the Christian church 
for ages, if not forever, (1520.^ It was but a quarter of 
a century from the discovery of America. 

Once that the church was rent, divisions yawned 

Divisions. '' 

wide on all sides. The point on which the refor- 
mation concentrated itself was resistance to the Roman 
sway, which was accordingly thrown off by one state after 
another. Some of the seceders in Germany, resisting the 
measures of repression with which they were threatened, 
made the protest from which came the name of Protestant, 
(1529.) Then Protestants against Protestants appeared. 
The doctrines put forth by one party did not fay in with 
those of another party*in the same nation ; and as different 
nations entered the arena, different lines of separation 
arose between creed and creed, between form and form. 
It was the reaction against ages of baffled desire and stifled 
conscience. 

^ ^^..g.^ In presence of such dissensions amongst the be- 
of Kood lievers in one Lord and one faith, there is surely no 

room for exultation. To regard the reformation 
merely as a triumph, without recognizing it as a trial of hu- 
manity, is to shut one's eyes against some of the darkest pas- 
sages in human history. That it was a crisis alike of good 
and of evil, appears in its consequences, with which alone 
wc are here concerned. 



EUROPE FROM 1492 TO 1638. 63 

Keii *ous Take them, first, in a religious point of view. 
conse- To tliose who altogether refused to enter into the 
quences. j.gfQj.i-Qj^l^jQj^ jl^ brought a deeper subjection to exist- 
ing wrongs. To tliose who wholly entered into it, on the 
other hand, who shrank from none of its extremes, it 
brought the oppression of new errors, wilder at least, if not 
more fatal, than any of the old. It was only on the middle 
ground, between the reckless adherent and the dogged op- 
ponent of the reformation, that they are to be found who, 
profited by it, who returned to the truth in its moderation 
and its simplicity. Amongst these there was a reforma- 
tion ; amongst the others — those of the extremes on either 
side — there was rather a revolution, a convulsion. 

So with the consequences in a political point of 
conse- view. The ruling principle of European govcrn- 
qutnces. j^-^^j^^g^ ^et it be remembered, was monarchy. It 
had raised itself to its position, let it also be remembered, 
by its successful strife with the papacy of Rome, of which, 
however, it was no more the sovereign than it was the sub- 
ject. It had simply gained the ground on which, consciously 
or unconsciously, it might do its work of bnnging forward, 
or of suffering to be brought forward, the social and the 
individual interests of the people. To maintain this place, 
a temperate course amid the agitations of the times was 
necessary. Where men rushed madly into every new 
scheme of government, there anarchy took the place of 
monarchy. It was displaced by despotism at the other ex- 
treme, where the subordin|ition to the Roman see was un- 
shaken. Why the state should be thus affected by move- 
ments begun in the church, will not appear singular if we 
reflect how similar was the necessity, how similar the 
desire, for reform in both. 

But to leave these general observations for the 

Spain. 

examples of them to be found amongst the states of 



64 PART I. 1492-1638, 

Europe, let us begin with the unchanging Spain, unchan- 
ging, though not without her Protestants. Yet there was 
no struggle between one cause and the other ; the decision 
was sharp and resolute to the effect that the church should 
undergo no alteration. Naturally, therefore, the monarchy 
of Spain fell into a sort of dependence upon the central 
power of the church to which it was thus devoted. The 
monarch was the absolute sovereign, ruling for the priest- 
•hood, for the nobility, for himself of course, but not for his 
people. Beneath such a king as Philip II., (1556-98,) in 
whom the Spanish system, both in church and in state, 
found its impersonation, the energies of the nation received 
a blight from which they have never recovered. 

The course of France, alike on some points, was 
very different as a whole. She had her massacre 
of St. Bartholomew, the bloodiest blow yet struck against the 
reformers, (1572,) before the edict of Nantes gave liberty 
of faith to her Protestants, the Huguenots, (1598.) But 
from the latter date, at all events, the position of France 
w^as that of a nation adhering to the Roman church, yet as 
its ally, not its subject. It was the temperate state upon 
the Roman side. Nowhere else did the church of Rome 
appear to so great advantage as where it was thus estab- 
lished in forbearance. Nowhere else was the state more 
successfully administered than where it was thus conducted 
in liberality. Europe saw no truer monarch during the 
period than Henry IV. of France, (1589-1610.) 

Far on in the Protestant van was Holland. She 

IIoUancL ^ ■> ic • 

flung herself into the reformation with a frenzy no 
doubt aggravated by her hatred for her mistress in Spain. 
The results were soon visible in scenes of pillage and blood. 
The Roman churches were violated; then the Protestant 
churches were rent asunder. In the state there were better 
signs. The heroic war of independence threw off the Span- 



EUROPE FROM 1492 TO 1638. Go 

ish dominion, (1566-1609.) But to the hopes thus inspired 
there came a rapid reverse, with* the rise of Maurice of 
Orange, to whom the best patriot of Holland, John Van 
Olden Barne veldt, fell a victim, (1619.) The Protestant 
extreme was quite as fatal as the Roman. 
Sweden Sweden and Protestant Germany were calmer 
and Ger- and happier. But the latter country was too much 
'"^"^* broken up, while the former was too much confined, 
to take any position of enduring influence. It is the less to 
our purpose to dwell upon their fortunes, inasmuch as they 
had but little part in the fortunes of our own country. 

Let us pass, therefore, to England, great in the 
Protestant cause, because great in the moderation 
by which the cause was sustained. The entrance of the 
nation into the lists was discreditable enough, so far as it 
was made at the dictates of Henry VIII., no earnest re- 
former, but a swollen despot. Once entered in, however, 
the heart of the nation beat nobly and enduringly. It went 
through few excesses. The passions of the early reform- 
ers were those of individuals ; the austerities of the later 
reformers were those of a few, compared with the many who 
remained steadfast. The church of the reformation assumed 
its gentler aspect in the church of England — the mean 
between the extremes, ahke of Protestantism and Roman- 
ism. Nor did the state altogether fail to harmonize with 
the church. The reign of Mary was an interruption ; but 
that of her sister Elizabeth was more than a compensation, 
(1558-1603.) England was stirred to new life. Physical- 
ly and intellectually, as well as morally, the nation received 
the impulse of the age, and bounded forward. Yet there 
were serious trials to come ; the development that had been 
begun could not go on uninterrupted, its very activity occa- 
sioning retrocession at times, as well as advance. 

All Europe was growing in one direction. No country 
6* 



66 PART I. 1492-1638. 

Intellect- ^^^ ^^^ touched by an intellectual flame. Italy, far 
uai ex- as she was from the sea that led to the new world, 
pansion. ^^ fi-om the agitation that led to the new life in 
the old world, — even she was radiant with science, with 
poesy, and with art. Galileo uttered his wondrous revela- 
tions ; Ariosto and Tasso composed their glowing poems ; 
Palestrina breathed forth his solemn strains ; Michael An- 
gelo and Raphael created their immortal forms. Spain, too, 
otherAvise so mute or so repulsive, rang out responsive with 
her versatile Cervantes and her inexhaustible Lope de 
Vega. England, in her activity, answered with the one 
universal voice of Shakspeare. Bacon was the English, 
Descartes the French philosopher, both, but especially the 
latter, being at once deliverers and lawgivers to the human 
intellect. It was for America as well as for Europe that 
these marvellous works were wrought. 



PAUT II. 



THE ENGLISH DOMINION 



1638-1763. 



(67) 



CHAPTER I. 

England and France from 1638 to 1763. 

Ouestion The two nations that were in the van of Europe 
of piece- would inevitably lead the van in America. The 

question of precedence between them was decided, 
as that of their common precedence had been, in Europe. 
Let us look thither in search of the controlling causes. 
Rei<-n of ^^® ^^^^^^ ^^^ France submitting to thft sceptre of 
Lonis a boy, Louis XIV., whose reign of nearly three 

quarters of a century (1643 to 1715) determines the 
point of French decline. We may call it decline, since this 
was the result, although tlie name of Great was then, and 
has since been given to the king, as if his government had 
been fruitful in grandeur and in beneficence. It was fruit- 
ful in neither. Its grandeur consisted of a dazzling court 
and a glittering army — elements of feebleness, as every 
one knows, rather than of greatness. Its beneficence was 
confined to courtiers and to commanders, to men not only of 
high but of low estate, provided they ministered to the royal 
will and to the royal luxury. But to be more definite. 
The mon- The reign of Louis was hostile to the true princi- 
archy. p|g ^^ monarchy ; that is, to the principle of ruling 
for the good of a people. He used his power for selfish 
ends, in striving after which he did far more to precipitate 
than to secure the royal authority. If he made himself the 
preeminent sovereign, he did not make his nation the pre- 
eminent nation in Europe. Nor was he liimself supreme 

(69) 



70 PART II. 1638-1763. 

for any length of time. He saw his intrigues baffled, his 
armies defeated, his conquests and his resources gone, his 
court overshadowed, even before he ceased to rule. 
The The one point, however, on which he failed most 

churcii. Qf ^ij^ ^^g jjj i-elation to the national religion. He 
found this, it will be remembered, a moderate form of 
E-omanism. He left it an extreme form. His displeasure 
bore down the liberal Romanists. His persecution crushed 
the Protestants. The edict of Nantes, beneath which the 
Protestauts had found protection for nearly a century, was 
revoked, not without previous outrages, (1G85.) Bigotry 
and priestcraft triumphed, but in a manner that tended to 
their overthrow, nay, to the jeopardy of the religion itself 
which they professed to uphold. No crisis in French his- 
tory was more important than this. It changed the charac- 
ter not only of the national religion, but of the national gov- 
ernment — even of the nation. The signs of feebleness 
Avithin and of feebleness without in the administration, the 
disunion and the degradation amongst the people, sprang 
from no cause more clearly than from the transformation of 
the French church into a church of subjection to Rome, and 
of ferocity to all the world besides. It was thus chiefly that 
Louis left France shaken to the centre and to the base. 
The -A.t the same time, the development of the French 

nation, nation, begun in previous years, was not stopped. 
It was not even checked in some directions. Their chival- 
rous natures could not be turned back upon themselves. 
They were still the same ardent, the same generous race 
that they had been, more generous and more ardent than 
their king who was misleading them. Their higher minds 
gazed upwards steadily, in defiance of the errors and the 
wrongs around them. The names of Corneille the poet, of 
Pascal the philosopher, of Fenelon at once the poet, the 
philosopher, and the priest, bear witness to the aspirations 
of the French nation. 



ENGLAND AND FRANCE FROM 1638 TO 1763. 71 

Such an age as that of Louis XIV. Avas sure to 
be followed by a reaction. The long reign of his 
successor, Louis XV. (1715-74) was marked by almost 
every sign of degeneracy. Profligacy rather than splendor, 
sensuality rather than ambition, ruled at the court, while the 
church sank into indifference and infidelity. The people 
beneath these decaying oppressions is represented by Vol- 
taire and Rousseau, both defying the corruptions in high 
places, yet neither believing in any principle that could 
restore purity or liberty. 
^, „ The Eniijlish nation had its difficulties. In the 

The Eng- * 

lisii na- first placc, tlic pcoplc was but partially in existence. 
Such men as pursued their callings at home, or 
crossed the sea to the colonies, with any thing like independ- 
ence of spirit, formed but a small class. The greater pro- 
portion were of the dependent and the inefficient. In the 
next place, a succession of struggles was interfering with 
all steadiness in the present, all security in the future. 
Periods First came the period of Charles I., when the 

of trial, monarcli excited his subjects to rebellion, (1625-49.) 
Next followed the period of the commonwealth, when the 
fierce excesses of the people tlu-eatened general ruin, 
(1649-59.) Then came the period of the restoration, 
when the brothers Charles II. and James II. renewed the 
arbitrary government of their father, the first Charles, with- 
out any of his principle or enthusiasm, (1660-88.) These 
periods were all of trial — trial to the church, trial to the 
state. The monarchy was in danger of falling, now into 
anarchy, now into tyranny. The church was in peril at 
one time of returning to the extreme of Romanism, and 
at another of falling into the extreme of Protestantism. 
Revoiu- From these trials it is common to say that the 
tion of nation was saved by the revolution of 1688. So 

1688 

far as this event brought the despotism and the 



72 PART II. 1638-1763. 

extreme Romanism of James II. to an end, it did save Eng- 
land. But it had its own evil etFects. It reduced both 
church and state beneath an aristocracy whose principles, 
on many points, were utterly adverse to the true concerns 
of either. There was no liberation, no elevation of the 
people. To them the revolution was as little a matter of 
interest as if it had occurred at the antipodes. The truth 
is, that the revolution, in itself, was but a cessation of the 
swayings to and fro of the preceding years. Inasmuch as it 
brought some measure of stability, it was a national blessing. 
Aristoc- -^"^ ^^^® stability was the stability of the aristoc- 
racy in racy. The sovereigns sank to a secondary place. 
P"^^"^- William III., the hero of the revolution and the 
successor of James, was one to follow events rather than to 
lead them, (1688-1702.) His successors, Anne and the 
first and second Georges, (1702-60,) had no decided influ- 
ence upon the national destinies. The rulers of England 
were its ministers and its Parliaments, turbid in them- 
selves, yet the channels through which the stream was run- 
ning before reaching its clearer and its wider course. The 
monarchy necessarily continued limited. But the church 
did not continue moderate, or even united. Its moderation 
gave way to the conservative aristocracy, the tories ; its 
union yielded to the anti-conservative whigs. When these 
predominated, it was to the gain of Puritanism ; when the 
tories got the upper hand, an extreme churchmanship pre- 
vailed. 

English Yet the star of England was not going down. 
progress, "j^j^g very facts of an aristocracy and a Parliament 
imply that a larger number were sharing in the national 
power. A larger number also amongst the subject classes 
was rising to culture and to influence. The grandeur of 
such strains as Milton's, of such discoveries as Newton's, 
and the gentleness of such meditations as Addison's, of such 



ENGLAND AND FRANCE FROM 1638 TO 1763. 73 

creations as Goldsmith's, betoken wider circles of intelli- 
gence and of elevation. After all its humiliations, the 
nation still stood erect, still struggled forward. 

J Here lies the difference between England and 

and France. The latter came out of her trials listless, 
corrupt, unbelieving. The former emerged in faith 
and in activity, many of her best interests broken and 
imperfect, but still capable of being restored, and to a 
liiglier state than they had ever reached. To England, the 
cycle of revolutions seemed closed for the time. To France, 
it seemed to be but opened. The one nation was still on the 
dechne. The other had begun to rise. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Thirteen Colonies. 
• We left various colonies from Endand scattered 

Old and ^ 

new coio- over the Atlantic coast. Of these, the three princi- 
""■''■ pal, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Maryland, were 
portrayed with comparative detail. J^esides these three, 
se\Tral were mentioned as existing in New England, while 
others were projected in New Jersey and Carolina. It is 
the purpose of this chajjter to show how the older colonies 
Avere concentrated, while new colonies were founded and 
extended. 

Plymouth Tlie oldest colony in New England — that of 
annexed. Plymouth — maintained its independence for seventy 
years. It Avas then annexed to Massachusetts, (1G91.) 
Maine an- Tlic name of Ncw Somersetshire was changed to 
nuxLd. Maine at tlie same time that Sir Ferdinando Gorges 
Avas constituted lord palatine of the province, (1G39.) His 
deputy presently appeared to hold a general court at Saco, 
(1G40.) The grant to Gorges covered the district from the 
Piscataqua to the Kennebec ; but Avithin a very fcAV years 
one of the numerous patents, previously mentioned as con- 
veying the same soil to different parties, Avas revived, and 
the land between the Kennebec and the Saco became a dis- 
tinct territory, as Ligonia, ("1643.) Some time later the tAVO 
divisions Avere both annexed to Massachusetts, (1652-58,) 
then separated, (1665,) then reannexed, (1668,) and at 
length bought of the Gorges heirs by the colony of Massa- 

^74) 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 75 

chusetts Bay, (1677.) East of the Kennebec, as far as 
Pemaquid Point, there lay a tract belonging to the prov- 
ince of New York, (1G64,) but afterwards united with Mas- 
sachusetts, to which the territory beyond Pemaquid, previ- 
ously occupied by one or two French posts, was also 
attached, (1G91.) Tliis eastern region was afterwards de- 
tached by French conquest, (1G06,) but was ultimately 
reunited to Massachusetts by treaty with France, (171o.) 

Not quite so various were the fortunes of the New 
Hump- Hampshire settlements. Those at Dover, Ports- 
mouth, and Exeter,* surrendering themselves to 
Massachusetts, (1641-42,) left nothing but unsettled lands to 
bear the name of New Hampshire. P>ut on the revival of 
the Mason claims to the territory east of the jMerrimac, 
New Hampshire was declared in England to be a royjd 
province, (1677-79.) The new government had been in 
operation but a short and a troubled period, Avhen the peo- 
ple again united themselves to Massachusetts, (1690-92;) 
and, though again disunited, they were once more rejoined 
to that colony, at least so far as to be under one and the 
same governor for nearly half a century, (1698-1741.) 
Annexation did not prevent disturbance. Ncav Hampshire 
was still the object of suits and controversies on both sides 
of the ocean, while the course of affairs amongst the inhab- 
itants themselves was far from being peaceful. It finally 
became a separate province, (1741.) 

Massachu- Massachusetts Bay was the thriving sister, as we 
setts. ggg^ amongst the New England family. Her large 
immigrations and her increasing. resources gave her the sta- 
bility and the unity which her neighbors lacked. She did 
not go without her trials. At the very time that Plymouth 
and Maine were added to her domains, her independence of 

* Founded by Wheelwright, one of the Hutchinson exiles, in 1638. 



76 PART II. 1638-1763. 

government was reduced by a change in her charter, (1691,) 
of which we shall take notice hereafter. The colony con- 
tinued, however, to thrive. 

Connccti- Of the three settlements in Connecticut, two, 
<^"*- namely, Saybrook and Connecticut, were early 
united under the latter name, (1644.) For this colony a 
royal charter was afterwards procured by John Winthrop, 
the early governor, (1662.) The charter included the col- 
ony of New Haven ; but to this community the provisions of 
the instrument were so unacceptable that the union was not 
consummated for two years, nor would it have been so soon 
but for external circumstances, (1665.) While the Con- 
necticut territory was thus rounded off, it was cut into by the 
grant of Long Island to the province of New York, for 
wliich, likewise, the main land was claimed as far as the 
Connecticut River. But this claim was repelled. 
Rho.ie ^^^^ settlements of Providence and Rhode Island 

Island, were united under a single charter procured by 
their founder, Roger Williams, from the crown, (1644.) 
He went a second time to England to obtain its confirma- 
tion during the commonwealth, (1651-52,) being elected 
president of the colony on his return, (1654.) Suspended 
at a later time, the charter was renewed by the royal gov- 
ernment, (1663.) A portiojn of the territory supposed to 
be covered by the charter, and lying to the west of the 
Narraganset waters, was for a long period separated from 
the colony, under the name of the King's Province, 
(1665-1727.) 

Thus were the various colonies of New England 
colonics I'educed to four — New Hampshire, Massachusetts, 
in New Rhode Island, and Connecticut. A fifth colonj^, the 
• later Stn te of Vt^rmont, was prepared by the Massa- 
chusetts Fort Dummer, on the site of Brattleboro', (1724,) 
and by the New Hampshire grants of townships, Benning- 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 77 

ton being the earliest, (1749.) But the four elder colonies 
were all that enter into the list of tlie thirteen. 

Virginia, the oldest of the colonies, was still the 

Virginia. ...... r\ i i 

most extensive in its limits. Un the north, a bound 
seemed to be set by the grant of IMarjland. But on the 
west and the south, Virginia stretched indefinitely, the grant 
of Carolana existing only upon paper. The government of 
the colony was frequently altered. Under the English 
commonwealth, the governors were chosen by the colonial 
assembly, (1 652-GO.) An earHer grant of the lands between 
the Potomac and, the Kappahannoc to Lord Culpepper and 
his associates, (1649,) was afterward.s revived, and extended 
to a lease of the entire colony for thirty-one years, (1G73.) 
In vain did the Virginia assembly protest against the pro- 
ceeding; in vain did it demand a charter to protect it 
against similar aggressions. Culpepper, buying out his 
associates and obtaining the appointment of governor for 
life, (1675,) sported his authority in England for several 
years before he made his appearance m Virginia, (1680.) 
His own disappointment being quit(ias great as the discon- 
tentment of his subjects, his authority over them was sur- 
rendered, and the provincial government Avas restored, 
(1684.) But, twenty years later, (1704,) a somewhat sim- 
ilar system was established by the appointment of one Eng- 
lish nobleman after another to be governor ; he, in his turn, 
sending out his lieutenant governor to administer the colony 
in his name. All the while the colony was increasing. On 
the south, indeed, its territories were restricted by the crea- 
tion of new colonies ; but on the west its settlers were cross- 
ing the mountains and clearing the farther valleys. 

The adjoining colony of Maryland underwent few 

Maryland. . • i i \ . . . , ,.i , ^ 

territorial changes. Its vicissitudes, like those of 
Virginia, consisted in its passing and repassing into new 
hands. As Virginia changed from a province to a proprie- 

7* 



78 PART II. 1638-17G3. 

tary colony, so Maryland changed from a proprietary colony 
to a province. After various disturbances, in none of 
which, however, had the proprietors power been actually 
cast off, a convention of the Protestant settlers deposed the 
proprietary officers, (1689,) and transferred the capital of 
the colony from the Catholic St. Mary's to the Protestant 
Annapolis, (1694.) As the Protestant fervor in England 
was just then at its height, the proceedings of the colony 
were confirmed by the crown. But the head of the propri- 
etary family in the next generation, Benedict Leonard, 
Lord Baltimore, becoming an English churchman, recov- 
ered the possession of Maryland, (1715.) 

The first of the new colonies amongst the thirteen 
was Carolina. This was the territory included first 
in the limits of Virginia, and then in those of Carolana by 
royal patent. The patentee of Carolana had made no set- 
tlement or grant ; but Virginia had granted at least a por- 
tion of the territory by act of assembly, (1643.) Another 
portion was occupied by a Massachusetts party settled near 
the mouth of Cape Fea*- River, on land purchased from the 
Indians, (1660.) Without regard to any of these claims, 
eight persons of the highest rank, amongst them the Earl 
of Clarendon, then prime minister, obtained a royal patent 
for all the territory between Albemarle Sound and the St. 
John's River, (1663.) A second charter extended the 
northern boundary to Chowan River, and the southern to 
below the Spanish St. Augustine, (1665,) while a tliird 
charter annexed the Bahama Islands to the swollen prov- 
ince, (1667.) 

North and It was swollcu Only ou the map. In reality, it 
South. ]^^^ i^^^j. ^^^ ^j. ^^^,^ shrivelled settlements. The 
• nucleus of North Carolina was a Virginian settlement, not 
included in Carolina until the second charter, (1665.) The 
Massachusetts colony formed the nucleus of South Caro- 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 79 

Una. Meeting with trials and desertions, this colony was 
absorbed in, rather than strengthened by, a band from Bar- 
badoes. Other parties came from England, from New 
England, and from New York ; with Presbyterians from 
Scotland and Ireland, and Huguenots from France, 
(1671-8G.) Of the various settlements that arose, Charles- 
ton took the lead, (1G80.) Both North and South Carolina 
were organized as proprietary governments. Such, how- 
ever, were the troubles ensuing beneath these forms, that 
the Assembly of South Carolina, many years later, declared 
the proprietors to have forfeited their dominion. Follow- 
ing up a successful insurrection against the proprietary 
officials by an appeal to England, the South Carolinians 
obtained a provisional royal government, (1719-21.) Some 
time after, the crown, by act of Parliament, bought out 
seven of the eight proprietors, the eighth retaining his prop- 
erty, but not his sovereignty, (1729.) A governor was 
then appointed by the crown for North Carolina, both divis- 
ions being organized as royal provinces. Thenceforward, 
the two pursued their destinies separately. 
j^Tg^v The next year after the grant of Carolina, a new 

York. grant was made in peculiar circumstances. New 
Netherland, though still occupied by the Dutch, was, as 
the province of a nation at war with England, conveyed 
by Charles 11. to his brother James, Duke of York and 
Albany, as proprietor ; the limits of the province being ex- 
tended from the Connecticut to, and presently beyond, the 
Delaware, (1G64.) In addition, the grant covered the 
eastern part of Maine and the islands to the south and west 
of Cape Cod, which the duke had obtained by transfer to 
liim of early grants from the Council for New England.* 
These portions, however, of his domain fell at a later time 

* To Sir William Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling, in 1621-35. 



so PART II. 1638-1763. 

beneath the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, as has been ob- 
served ; while much of the main jDrovince went to Connecti- 
cut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. The seizure 
of the province from the Dutch will be told in another 
chapter. It continued under a proprietary form of govern- 
ment until the accession of the proprietor to the throne of 
England. It then became a royal province ; though, while 
James II. ruled, it was more immediately dependent upon 
the royal authority than was customary with the provinces 
in general, (1G85-88). 

New Jer- Hardly had the Duke of York obtained the grant 
sey. of his province, when he conveyed that portion of it 
between the Hudson and Delaware Rivers to Sir George 
Carteret and Lord Berkeley, both amongst the proprietors 
of Carolina, (1664.) A few hamlets of Dutch and Enghsh, 
who had crossed from Long Island, were already sprinkled 
upon the territory, when the first town under the new pro- 
prietors was founded, and called EHzabethtown, (1665.) 
The province was named New Jersey. As in Maryland 
and Carolina, so in New Jersey, there soon arose dissensions 
between the colonists and the proprietors. The proprietors 
were changed. Berkeley sold out his half to certain Qua- 
kers, who made a settlement at Salem, (1675.) In the fol- 
lowing year, a formal separation of the province took place, 
the settlement at Salem being situate in West, and that at 
EHzabethtown in East New Jersey; the latter division re- 
maining with Carteret. A treaty with the Inchans, under 
the auspices of the Quakers, confirmed the rights of the 
proprietors, (1678.) Soon after, a company, of which some, 
but not all, the members were Quakers, made the purchase 
of East New Jersey, (1682.) A large Presbyterian emi- ' 
gration fro^^y, Scotland then took place, (1685.) But the 
growth of the province, as well as that of its western sister, 
was greatly impeded, partly by domestic disputes between 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. 81 

the proprietors and the settlers, and partly by contentions 
with the officials of New York, who pretended to continued 
jurisdiction over the lands which had been separated from 
that province. The Jerseys were finally surrendered by 
their proprietors to the crown, (1702.) They were then 
reunited as a royal province, for many years, (until 1738,) 
under the same governor as New York. 
Pennsyi- "^^ Quaker, interested in both tlie Jerseys during 
vauia, h^q Quaker possession, obtained the grant of the 
adjoining territory on the west. A royal charter constituted 
William Penn proprietor of a district whose extent, though 
uncertain, might have been described in general as lying 
between New York, New Jersey, and Maryland. To this 
the name cf Pennsylvania was given by the crown, (1G81.) 
A grant from the Duke of York conveyed the territories on 
the lower shore of the Delaware to the same proprietor, 
(1C82.) Of this wide domain, a variety of settlers, Dutch, 
Swedes, and English, were partially in occupation. To 
take them beneath his rule, the proprietor sent out an agent 
with conciliatory assurances, while, to introduce fresh bodies 
of inhabitants, especially of his own persuasion, he formed 
an association in England. The first fruits were two colo- 
nies, one led by three commissioners, in the year of the 
charter, (1G81,) the other conducted by Penn himself in 
the following year, (1682.) A convention of the different 
settlers, new and old, presently accepted the proprietor's 
organization of the province, including the territories of 
both the royal and the ducal grants, with their previous 
inhabitants. Next followed a treaty with the natives, a 
peaceful and a feeble tribe of Indians, whose acquiescence 
in his plans might have been disregarded by Penn without 
any danger, had he not preferred to be just. The town of 
Philadelphia was then begun, and there the first Assembly 
of Pennsylvania was soon convened, (1G83.) With all 



82 PAUT II. 1638-17G3. 

Penn's care, and all his frames of government, of wlilcli 
there was a goodly number, the course of his proprietor- 
ship did not run smooth. Troubles within the colony were 
accompanied by troubles without ; the province being at 
one time taken from him by the EngHsh authorities, (1692 
-94.) Even after his restoration, he found matters so diffi- 
cult to manage, that he at length proposed to cede his sov- 
ereignty to the crown, (1710.) He retained it, however, 
and transmitted it to his sons, to be much the same source 
of struggle to them that it had been to him. 

The territories, so styled, of Delaware, originally 

a Swedish, afterwards a Dutch, possession, then an 
appendage of New York, and then again annexed to Penn- 
sylvania, became so far separate from the latter province 
as to obtain a distinct assembly, though continuing to have 
the same governor, (1702.) 

Last of the thirteen was the colony of Georgia, 

in founding which there were mingled purposes of 
resistance to the Spaniards and the French in the south, 
as well as of relief to the suffering in England. A mem- 
ber of the House of Commons, James Edward Oglethorpe, 
had been active in proposing and carrying out an inquiry 
into the state of the prisons in Great Britain. The idea 
of rescuing some of the prisoners from a state of degrada- 
tion even greater than they could have fallen into by them- 
selves, and of settling them in a colony, occurred to Ogle- 
thor])e, as a philanthropist, while, as an officer in the royal 
army, he was also sensitive on the point of defending the 
colonial boundaries against the encroachments of other 
])owers in America. The purchase of the Carolinas by 
the crown (1729) opened the way to the foundation of a 
colony to the south of the settlements already made ; and 
for tliis a grant was obtained of the territory between the 
Savannah and Altamaha Rivers, under the royal name of 



THE THIRTEEN COLONIES • 83 

Georgia, (1732.) The charter conveyed the land and the 
dommion over it, not to colonists, nor yet to proprietors, but 
to twenty-one trustees, who, though subject to the royal over- 
sight, and to the obligations of the English law, were other- 
wise clothed with full power lor twenty-one years. A com- 
mon council of thirty-four members, fifteen of whom were 
named in the charter, and the rest appointed by the trustees, 
were to act as a board of administration merely. The colo- 
nial lands, it was further provided, were to be held by feudal 
tenure ; that is, only by male heirs. A universal interest 
was excited by this novel scheme of colonization. General 
subscriptions poured in to aid the trustees in their half- 
benevolent, half-patriotic plans, while Parliament made a 
national grant of ten thousand pounds. First to enlist 
personally, was a party of more than one hundred, whom 
Oglethorpe himself led to the settlement, which he named 
Savannah, (1733.) Everything seemed to bid fair; the 
Indians were conciliated, the colonists were satisfied, the 
nation was all alive with sympathy. Immigrants came 
from afar ; Moravians from Germany ; Presbyterians from 
the northern mountains of Scotland ; the earnest and the 
careless, the peasant and the prisoner, united in one people, 
(173-1-3G.) To the generous project of saving the convicts 
of Britain was added the devoted hope of the Moravians 
that the natives .of America might be converted. But 
there was a dark side to the scene from the first. The 
character of the colonists, that is, of the main body from 
England, was helpless enough, not to say corrupted enough, 
to cause great difficulties both to themselves and to their 
trustees. It will be seen hereafter that the military ser- 
vice expected from the colony was pretty much a failure. 
The colony soon became a royal province, (1754-55.) 

Such were the thirteen colonies of England. Spread 
out with indefinite borders and indefinite resources^ they lay 



84 PART II. 1638-1763. 



Aspect 



like misty points along the Atlantic shore. The 
of the eye that saw them, separate and indistinct, as they 

rose at the beginning, could catch no vision of the 
broad fields and the fruitful vales that were to expand and 
blend together in the future. As we look back ourselves, 
we see few promises of development or of unity in the early 
days of the thirteen colonies. 



CHAPTER III. 
Colonial Relations. 

The thirteen colonies were the colonies of Eng> 
land. But they were far from being settled exclu^ 
sively by Englishmen. The west, the centre, and the 
south of Europe all sent forth emigrants in greater or less 
numbers to people the American shore. Nor did these 
come to the settlements of other nations, to those of the 
Spaniards, the French, the Dutch, or the Swedes, alone, but 
rather to the English colonies, whose praise it is to have 
thus attracted and provided for the stranger. 

As there were different races, so there were dif- 
ferent classes. First came the gentleman, peculiar- 
ly so styled, of various look and of various spirit, according 
to the respective colonies, but every where classiiied as of 
'' the better sort." This order was perpetuated by the law 
of primogeniture, the eldest son receiving at least a double, 
if not more than a double, share of his father's estate. Next 
were the people of " the poorer sort " — the lower orders, as 
their name denotes. But by no means the lowest ; as 
there were others beneath them in the scale. The indent- 
ed servants, or apprentices, constituted a class of temporary 
bondmen. Sometimes exactly what their name suggests, 
too young or too shiftless to be their own masters, the in- 
dented were often men of a higher grade, the adherents, 
in many instances, of a defeated party or of a persecuted 
creed, who, falling into the hands of their opponents, were 
8 (85) 



86 PAET II. 1638-1763. 

sold for transportation to a market where they could be re- 
sold at a prolit. Such were the English royalists, taken 
captive by the parliamentary forces; such the Roinan 
Catholics, conquered while fighting for their faith in Ireland. 
Such, too, were many of the exiles from the continent. So 
great were the numbers imported as to amount — and 
in time of peace — to fifteen hundred a year in the 
single province of Virginia. The little consideration that 
there was for the class appears in the colonial codes.* 
Lower still, however, were the slaves. The first of this 
class were Indians, captured in wars or taken in snares, 
sometimes bought of their parents, even of themselves. 
Then came the negroes from Africa. These poor creatures 
found little mercy in the colonial statutes. The English 
law recognizing slavery declared the children of a free 
father to be free. But the Virginian code declared a 
child to follow the lot of the mother, (1662.) The law of 
England pronounced it felony to kill a slave. The law of 
Virginia decided it to be none, (lGG7.)t 
Of the old These classes were confined to no colony, and to 
world. j^Q division of colonies. Tliey existed amongst the 
rigid settlers of the north as well as amongst the freer 

* Maimed by a master, the servant is to be set free, (Mass. 1641 ; N. Y. 
16G5 ;) but any resistance on the servant's part entails an additional year 
of servitude, (Va. 1705.) Such as escape from their bonds are to be given 
up to their masters, or else their value is to be made up by those who 
harbor them, (Ya. 1661.) Poorly as the class was rated, there was that 
about them, in their anger, which prompted the Yirginians to make a 
" perpetual holiday " of the day on which a conspiracy, detected amongst 
their servants, was to have been executed, (1663.) 

t The Yirginia laws make it allowable to kill a fugitive, (1672.) forbid 
the slave at any time to carry arms, (1682,) cut him off from trial by jury, 
(1692,) and prohibit his manumission, except he is transported out of the 
province, (1692,) or except the governor and council deem him worthy of 
his liberty, (1724.) Other codes take much the same tone, without always 
entering into the same details. The most rigid laws were those of South 
Carolina, (1712-50.) 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 87 

and easier planters of the south. But they were not of 
colonial creation. They came from the old world, trans- 
planted from its ancient lands to the virgin soil of America. 
If they did not die, it was inevitable that they would take 
root and grow up with renewed luxuriance. 
institu- The sketch that goes before shows us that the 
tions be- colouial institutions were not the institutions of all. 

long to 

the free- They belonged to the freemen, so styled, " the bet- 
™^"' ter sort," with but a portion of " the poorer sort " 
thrown in. Indented servants and slaves, of course, had 
no part in the political or tlie social privileges of their supe- 
riors. But besides the bondmen proper, there was a large 
number not bondmen, and yet not freemen by the laws 
of the colonies. " The people," says an early writer on the 
Massachusetts system, " begin to complain they are ruled 
like slaves." Actual restlessness was showing itself. " It 
is feared," says the same writer, " that elections cannot be 
safe there long, either in church or commonwealth, so that 
some melancholy men think it a great deal safer to be in 
tlie midst of troubles in a settled commonwealth, or in 
hope easily to be settled,* than in mutinies there, so far off 
from succors," (IG-il.) 

English The institutions of the freemen sprang from the 
'''^^- English law. How fiir this extended over the colo- 
nies was a vexed question. One class of jurists or of 
statesmen in England maintained that America was a con- 
quered country, a country wrested from the native or the 
European races whom the English found in possession of it. 
The deduction from tliis view was, that the institutions of 
the country were at the pleasure of the crown or of the 
Parliament of England. But another class held opposite 
ground, asserting that the colonists were entitled, without 

* Keferring to the disturbances in England. 



88 PART II. 1638-1763. 

any consent or dissent on the part of England, to all the 
rights of Englishmen, inasmuch as the country was a dis- 
covered, not a conquered one. Some persons held an in- 
termediate opinion, denying the notion of conquest, and yet 
denying the inherent claim of the colonists to English 
privileges, making their rights depend on actual grants froin 
the sovereign power. So when the habeas corpus act, pro- 
viding for the issue of a writ to produce the*body of a prisoner, 
was passed, (1680,) it was said not to extend to the colonies, 
because they were not specially mentioned in the bill. A 
similar act, adopted by the Massachusetts General Court, 
was annulled by the crown, (1692.) But the privilege 
was afterwards tacitly, if not explicitly, allowed. The 
liberal system of interpretation slowly prevailing, the Eng- 
lish law was almost universally recognized to be the birth- 
right of the colonies as truly as of the mother-land. 

The governments of the colonies were variously 
govein- organized. Those under charters were altogether 
1"^"*^: in the hands of the colonists. The charter of Mas- 
sachusetts, indeed, was so far altered in 1691 as to transfer 
the appointment of the governor, lieutenant governor, and 
secretary to the crown, and even to prescribe the conditions 
on which the inhabitants should be admitted as freemen. 
The charters of Connecticut (1662) and Rhode Island 
(1644-63) left the entire administration to the colonists. 
The seven colonies originally under proprietary govern- 
ment — Maryland, the Carolinas, New York, New Jersey, 
Pennsylvania, and Delaware — were of course subject to 
the authority of their proprietors, but with many restric- 
tions upon it in favor of the colonists. The Carolinas, 
under the model of John Locke,* and New York, under 

* John Locke, the great philosopher, was employed by the Carolinian 
proprietors to embody their ideas — one cannot but think — rather than 
his own, in what was called '* the grand model," or " the fundamental con* 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 89 

the arbitrary rule of its ducal proprietor, who allowed no 
Assembly till 1683, were not so favorably situated. Penn- 
sylvania was subjected to claims asserted nowhere else, as 
M^ell as deprived of rights denied nowhere else, by two 
peculiarities in the charter to WiUiam Penn ; one, the as- 
sertion of the power of Parliament to tax the colony, the 
other, the omission of the title of the colonists to the rights 
of Englishmen. The record that four of the proprietary 
governments were changed to royal governments, — the 
Carolinas, New York, and New Jersey, — and all at the 
desire of the colonists, bears witness against the institutions 
of which proprietors were the chiefs. The royal provinces, 
however, Avere organized on the same terms as the proprie- 
tary colonies, except that, the king being at the head of 
affiiirs, the institutions of the provinces were more uniform. 
The number of provinces was seven : the four just men- 
tioned, with the older Virginia and New Hampsliire and 
the younger Georgia. 

In some of the colonies, especially those in the 
north, the towns were at the centre of their organi- 
zation. These were the primary bodies in which the colonists 



stitutions." Of the system thus concocted, the primary element was 
property, the scale of colonial dignities being graduated according to the 
possessions of the colonist. Seigniories for the proprietors, baronies for 
landgraves and caciques, colonies for lords of manors, or freeholders, 
were the divisions of the soil. Authority was parcelled out amongst pala- 
tine and other courts for the proprietors, a grand council for them and 
their nobility, and a Parliament for the proprietors, the nobility, and the 
lords of manors. As for those not wealthy enough for either of these classes, 
they were hereditary tenants, or else slaves. The church of the colony 
was to be the church of England, with a certain amount of toleration for 
other creeds. This extraordinary mass of titles and of powers held to- 
gether for just twenty-three years, (1669-1693,) but without ever getting 
into actual operation. It was relinquished by the proprietors at the uni- 
versal desire of the colonists, wha naturally preferred the simpler and the 
freer institutions originally reared under the charter. 
8* 



90 PART II. 1638-1763. 

were grouped and trained as freemen. Their workings, 
where they existed, are written on every page of the colo- 
nial and the national annals. AVhere they did not exist, their 
places were but poorly supplied by plantations or vestries. 
An instinct, as it may be called, after the establishment of 
towns, led the early legislators of Virginia into curious 
expedients. At one time, the resources of the colony were 
to be brought to bear on making Jamestown a city worthy 
of the name, (1662 ;) at another, each county was directed 
to lay out a town of its own, (1680.) At length a new 
capital was founded at Williamsburg, (1698.) 
Assem- Ncxt to the town or it^ substitute, under every 
biies. form of government as ultimately established, there 
was one and the same body. This was the assembly, the 
same cherished institution to the colony that Parliament 
was to the mother land. At first, in some places, com- 
posed of all the freemen, then placed upon a representative 
basis, and then divided into two houses, one of councillors 
or assistants, the other of representatives or burgesses, the 
assembly exercised all the functions of a legislature, sub- 
ject, of course, to the law and the sovereign of England. 
The House of Representatives, or of Burgesses, as the case 
might be in the different colonies, constituted the, popular 
branch, so entirely in some instances as to go by the 
name of the assembly, leaving the councillors or assistants 
to appear, what they generally were, the officers of the 
crown. But the assembly was by no means popular, ac- 
cording to modern notions. A large amount of property, 
real or personal, was usually essential as a qualification of 
membership, the very voters being under some conditions 
of the same nature. The sessions were often few and far 
between ; in some colonies, and at some periods, not more 
frequent than once in three years, or even more than three. 
An assembly, moreover, would sometimes hold over beyond 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 91 

its lawful term, becoming as mucli of a burden to the colony 
as it was intended to be an assistance. But when once 
convened, at the proper season and in the proper spirit, the 
assembly was a tower of strength to its people. 

That which was most variable, not to say most 

Churches. ^ . ^ J 

ineffective, m the colonies, was the very thing that 
should have been most stable and most powerful. The 
church of Christ was rent with factions. The blessings 
that might have issued from a common church, had it been 
pure and true, have no place m our history. The church 
of England was established in Virginia, Maryland, the 
Carolinas, and Georgia. The Quakers and the Presby- 
terians prevailed in the central colonies; in the northern, 
the Puritans carried all before them. Such divisions would 
not merely prevent unity ; they would break up liberty. 
Persecu- Amongst tlic harslicst provisions of the Massa- 
tion iu chusetts system was that excluding all but church 
chusetts. members from the rights of freemen. Against this, 
Child. chiefly, was directed the petition of Dr. Robert 
Child, and six others, some of them of the highest station, 
church membership excepted, in the colony, (1G46.) 
Child was a young man, recently arrived in the country 
with the purpose of making some scientific inquiry into its 
mineral resources. At the time of his petition, he was on 
the point of returning to England, but with the idea, ap- 
parently, of coming back to Massachusetts, could he be 
received on equal terms with the freemen of the colony. 
Be this as it may, he and his fellow-petitioners asked for 
admission to the privileges of Massachusetts, instead of 
which they found themselves charged with " contemptuous 
and seditious expressions," for which they were arraigned 
and heavily fined. Thus treated, they set about preparing a 
memorial, which Child was to convey to Parliament, and in 
^pport of which, another document, praying " for Hberty 



92 PART IT. 1638-1763. 

of conscience,. and for a general governor" from England, 
was hastily got up amongst several of the non-freemen of 
Boston and its neighborhood. Only a few signatures to 
this paper were obtained, probably on account of the risk 
which the signers ran ; one of the most active of their 
number being put in irons, on the discovery of the affair 
by the magistrates. Child himself, and some of his fellow- 
memorialists, were also seized ; their papers were examined, 
and their persons detained in custody until after the ship 
in which they intended to take passage for England had 
departed. A copy of their memorial reached London, but 
was never acted upon. 

" I have done too much of that work already," 

Baptists. "^ 

John Winthrop, the governor for many years, is 
reported to have said in his last hours, when urged to sign 
an order of banishment against a believer in a different 
church than his own, (1649.) But he left others to carry 
out the austerities from which the approach of death might 
well recall a human spirit. Within two years, John Clarke, 
a minister amongst the Baptist exiles of Rhode Island, 
was arrested while preaching in a house at Lynn, (1651.) 
" They more uncivilly disturbed us," said he, " than the 
pursuivants of the old English bishops were wont to do." 
Imprisoned with some of his fellow-Baptists in Boston, 
Clarke did not give way, but demanded the opportunity of 
proving, prisoner as he was, " that no servant of Jesus 
Christ hath any authority to restrain any fellow-servant in 
his worship, where no injury is offered to others." The 
answer of the magistrates was, " Fined twenty pounds, or to 
be well whipped." One of his comrades escaped with a 
smaller fine, but another was whipped, while two persons 
who showed compassion upon him were themselves arrested 
and fined. Clarke, after paying his fine, woukl have sailed 
to England. But not allowed even to do this, he made his 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 93 

way to New Amsterdam, where he met with humaner treat- 
ment, and found the means of crossing the sea. Arrived 
in England, he pubHshed his " 111 News from New Eng- 
land," " wherein is declared, that while old England is 
becoming new,* New England is becoming old.", " The 
authority there established," he says, " cannot permit men, 
though of never so civil, sober, and peaceable a spirit and 
life, freely to enjoy their understandings and consciences, 
nor yet to live or come among them, unless they can do as 
they do, and say as they say, or else say nothing ; and so 
may a man live at Rome also," (1652.) 

Clarke's case appears to have excited attention, 
stairs notwith^tanchng the late indifference in relation to 
renion- Child and liis fcllow-pctitioners. Such as were 

strance. 

opposed to the Puritans did not stand alone in con- 
demning their intolerance. One of their own number, an 
early and a distinguished member of the Massachusetts 
Company, wrote to the elders, Wilson and Cotton, in terms 
of sorrowful remonstrance. " It doth not a little grieve 
my spirit to hear what sad things are reported daily of 
your tyranny and persecution in New England, as that you 
fine, whip, and imprison men for their consciences. . . . 
These rigid ways have laid you low in the hearts of the 
saints." Thus wrote Sir Richard Saltonstall, a Puritan, 
but not a persecutor, a lover of other men's liberty, as 
well as of his own. 

His letter was unheeded. "VYithin a very brief 
of liar- period, the first president of Harvard College, 
vardCoi- Hcury Dunster, a clergyman, a scholar, and a 

true man, was tried, convicted, and obliged to 
resign his of!ice, on the charge of being a Baptist, (1654.) 
" The whole transaction of this business," wrote he, " is 

* In the time of the commonwealth. 



94 PART II. 1638-1763. 

such, which in process of time, when all things come to 
mature consideration, may very probably create grief on 
all sides ; yours subsequent, as mine antecedent. I am 
not the man you take me to be." In the following year, 
(1655,) the corporation of the college appealed to the 
General Court to pay the amount still due to the deposed 
president, as Avell as to allow him something additional, " in 
consideration of his extraordinary pains." But so intem- 
perate was the disposition of the authorities, as to refuse 
not only the additional grant, but even the actual balance 
of the president's account. The spirit of wisdom had not 
yet descended either upon Harvard College or upon the 
community by which it had been founded. 

A new class of victims appeared. A few unhap- 
py Quakers — the more unhappy, if guilty of the 
fanatical excesses with which they were charged — came to 
Boston, some of them to brave, all of them to encounter, per- 
secution, (165G.) Brought immediately before the magis- 
trates, they were first conlined, and then sent away beyond 
the limits of the colony. Laws were at once passed, inflict- 
ing a fine of one hundred pounds upon any master of a 
vessel who brought a Quaker with him, and ordering im- 
prisonment and scourging for any Quaker that might 
appear. This not being deemec^ enough, a new batch of 
statutes was prepared within the next two years, (1657-58,) 
fining the spectator or the worshipper at a Quaker meeting, 
the host of a Quaker, and threatening the Quaker himself 
with loss of ears, mutilation of tongue, and, finally, if he 
returned after being banished, with death. In these horri- 
ble enactments, almost all New England, except Rhode 
Island, coincided. They did not remain dead letters. One 
of the oldest freemen of the colony, Nicholas Upsall, ac- 
cused merely of kindness to the persecuted, was banished 
for three years, and, on his return, was thrown into a two 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 95 

years* imprisonment, (1656-59.) Nor was this the only 
case of the kind. As for the persecuted themselves, they 
were fined, imprisoned, scourged, and at length hanged, 
(1659-60.) Had it not been for the royal commands that 
these outrages should cease, (1660,) there is no saying how 
far they might have been carried. As it was, the persecu- 
tion continued at intervals, until a fresh order came from 
the king, requiring liberty of faith for all Protestants, 
(1679.) 

The saddest deeds of oppression in Massachusetts 

Witches. ^ ^ 

are yet to be told. It is accountable that the Puri- 
tan authorities should be bitter upon those who oj^posed 
their institutions or their creeds. But that they should 
raise a hue and cry against those who had no thought of 
opposing them, tliose against whom no charge could be 
substantiated but that of feebleness, of age, or of deformi- 
ty, seems inexplicable. An English law of older date than 
any existing EngUsh colony, (1603,) by which witchcraft 
was declared a capital crime, found a place amongst the 
so-called liberties of Massachusetts, (1641.) Some years 
elapsed before it was enforced, (1656;) iior did it then 
seem to set so well upon the consciences of the rulers as 
to make them desirous of keeping it in operation. A later 
attempt at the same sort of thing in Pennsylvania resulted 
in the acquittal of the unfortunate object of ill will, (1684.) 
When all was quiet, and the troubles of witchcraft appeared 
to have subsided forever, there was a sudden swell. A 
witch, so styled and so condemned, was executed at Boston, 
(1688.) One "victim not being enough, others were soon de- 
manded, and found at Salem village, now Danvers. The 
magistrates of the colony had thrown a hundred persons 
into prison, when the governor. Sir William Phips, arrived 
from England to head the persecution. The lieutenant gov- 
ernor, William Stoughton, presided at the judicial tribunals. 



96 PART II. 1638-1763. 

Behind these official personages, several of the elders or 
ministers, led by Increase and Cotton Mather, father and 
son, urged on the ferocious pursuit. It lasted eight long 
months, devouring twenty victims, torturing many others, 
and threatening a still larger number, when the work of 
blood was arrested, partly by interference from England, 
and partly by accusations directed against some of the per- 
secutors themselves, (1693.) "The Lord be merciful to 
the country," exclaimed Chief Justice Stoughton, on find- 
ing that he could sentence no more as guilty of Avitchcraft. 
Years later, the letters of Eobert Calef, a merchant of 
Boston, who wrote against the fierce delusion of his neigh- 
bors, were burned in the yard of Harvard College by order 
of the president. Increase Mather, (1700.) 
fersccu- ^^® have lingered long in Massachusetts. It is 
tion else- there that we find the most striking traces of that 
persecuting spirit of which almost every colony had 
its share. New England, with one exception, occupied the 
same ground as its principal colony. New York ordered 
every Roman Catholic priest voluntarily entering the prov- 
ince to be hangejd, (1700.) Protestants were likewise visited 
with penalties or with restrictions, unless they submitted to 
the church of England, (1704.) Maryland began by an 
act which proclaimed death to all who denied the Trinity, 
and fine, scourging, imprisonment, and banishment, to all 
who denied " the blessed Virgin Mary or the holy apostles 
or evangelists," (1649.) Long after, the Roman Catholics 
becoming, as has been mentioned, the objects of persecu- 
tion, their public services were forbidden, and their offices 
as teachers, both private and public, were suspended, 
(1704.) Of all the colonies, however, none kept nearer to 
Massachusetts in the race of persecution than Virginia, the 
colony of the English, as Massachusetts was that of the 
Puritan church. ' A few Puritans, who had found a corner 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 97 

in Virginia, invited some ministers from ^lassachusetts and 
New Haven. Three came, but were almost immediately 
warned by the government " to depart the colony with all 
conveniency," (1G42-43.) Another Puritan clergyman, 
with many of his persuasion, was banished a few years 
later, (1648-49.) The Puritans being disposed of, the 
Quakers came in for attention. A law inflicted a hundred 
pounds' fine upon the shipmaster who introduced, and 
upon the colonist who entertained, a Quaker, the Quaker 
himself being imprisoned until he gave security that he 
would leave the colony never to return, (1660-63.) Bap- 
tists were provided for in another law, subjecting them to 
a fine, (1662.) Thus the prey upon which (he Puritan 
magistrates pounced in the north was assailed by the 
church of England authorities in the south. The same 
spirit, suspicious and oppressive, was at work throughout 
the land.* 
„ . Save in one nook, where liberality and confidence 

have in • -' 

Rhode prevailed. In Rhode Island, the colony whose 
people were twofold exiles, — exiles from England, 
and exiles from New England, — persecution found no place. 
The assembly, gathered under the charter of 1644, estab- 
lished freedom of faith by legislative enactment, (1647.) 
In petitioning for the charter of 1663, the Rhode Islanders 
urged their " lively experiment that a most flourishing" civil 
state may stand and best be maintained with a full liberty 
of religious concernments." Time and maturing wisdom 
had taught Roger Williams to practise what he preached 
in favor of liberty of conscience. Even the Quakers, 
whose doctrines he much disliked and opposed, found 
refuge amongst his people, and so securely, that Rhode 
Island refused to insist upon the oath of allegiance to the 
crown, on account of the Quaker scruples to taking oaths 
of any kind. " The first liberty," wrote Williams, " is of 
9 



1)8 PART II. 1G;38-1763. 

our spirits, wliicli neither Old nor Ncav England knows the 
like, nor no part of the world a greater." He died, (1683 ;) 
but so directly did his better spirit descend to those coming 
after him, that with one exception bearing upon Roman 
Catholics, then excluded from the privileges of all the colo- 
nies, tlie laws o^ Rhode Island continued to bear and to for- 
bear for g(^neration after generation. 

Tlie relations between one class and another 

Iiitcr-folo- 

iii.ii dim- within the colony being such as have been described, 
it mny be inferred how uncertain were the relations 
between colony and colony. Differences of origin and of 
situation, enhanced by differences of creed, of policy, and of 
interest, brought about divisions and hostilities. Nor were 
these confined to colonies that were far remote from one 
another in position or in character. On the contrary, the 
instances to be mentioned are those of quarrels among 
neighbors ; nay, even among allies. 

siiawomet Samucl Gortoii, a clothier from London, who 
find Mas- found uo welcomc in Boston, Plymouth, or even in 
s. ^j^^ KiiQje Island settlements, purchased, in the last- 
named vicinity, some land from the Indians, and began the 
little colony of Shawomet. He seems to have been a 
sort of spiritualist, much given to rhapsody, if not blas- 
phemy, but harmless, disposed to force his views upon 
none, and ready to fly rather than to fight amidst the war- 
ring parties of New England. But when pursued by his 
old opponents of Massachusetts, on the ground that the land 
which his colony occupied was theirs by virtue of subse- 
quent negotiations with the Indians, Gorton resolved to 
make a stand, (1643.) It was in vain. The dozen men 
whom he had with him could make no effectual defence 
against the forty who came, with commissioners at their 
head, from Massachusetts. A few of the Shawomet party 
escaped ; but Gorton, with nine others, was transported as a 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 99 

captive to Boston. There he was put upon trial, partly for 
rejecting the dominion, and partly for rejecting the creed 
of his conquerors. Convicted, of course, he was set to work 
in irons, most of his companions meeting the same fate. 
But as they proved troublesome, especially by instilling 
their doctrines into those around them, they were set free, 
" no more to come into the colony, upon pain of death," 
(1G44.) Gorton at once repaired to England, where, from 
tlie Ejirl of Warwick, then "governor-in-chief and lord 
high admiral of all those islands and plantations within 
the bounds and upon the coasts of America," he obtained a 
patent for his colony as a part of the Providence Planta- 
tions, the name of Shawomet being changed to that of its 
protector — Warwick, (1G47.) Not long after, JMassachu- 
setts attempted to get up another onslaught upon the War- 
wick settlement, but was prevented, (1G51.) 

Massachusetts was at the head of a confederacy, 
co"oi!icsof t^^^ story of which will be found to throw much 
New Eng- ijg]it upon the relations of colony to colony. It 
had been proposed, at an early date, (1037,) to 
form a league amongst the New England settlements ; but 
the project fell through, on account of the resistance of Con- 
necticut to the demands of Massachusetts. Circumstances 
induced Connecticut to give way, some time afterwards, 
when a confederacy was formed, under the name of " The 
United Colonies of New England," (1643.) Each colony 
was to appoint two commissioners, who must be church 
members, to conduct all matters of administration, to decide 
upon questions of peace or war, to regulate the demand and 
surrender of fugitive servants, slaves, or criminals ; but all 
acts of the commissioners required ratification by the peo- 
ple. In case of war, a certain number of troops was to be 
furnished by the different members of the league. Massa- 
chusetts, furnishing a double proportion, obtained the honor 



LofC. 



100 PART II. 1638-1763. 

of having the commissioners' annual session held twice as 
often at Boston as at any other place of meeting. Indeed, 
Massachusetts was the head and front of the whole con- 
federacy. 

The spirit of the league soon came out. Massa- 
nientof setts, (then including New Hampshire,) Plymouth, 
Khode r^^^f\ the two Connecticut colonies, beino- united, 

Island. , 7 o 7 

there remained Maine and Rhode Island. Maine 
was too scantily settled, as well as too remotely situated, to 
be taken into account; but Rhode Island, begirt by the 
confederates, had some claims to consideration. At all 
events, it asked admission to the union. The demand Avas 
refused, except on condition that the colony would submit 
itself as a dependent to Plymouth. One cannot but wonder 
that, witli such a temper, the league refrained from blotting 
its independent neighbor out of existence. 
Disagree- Th^Pgs wcut by uo means smoothly amongst the 
meuts. confederates themselves. At one time, Connecticut 
imposed a tax on river navigation, which acted adversely to 
the interests of the town of Springfield, (1647.) Massachu- 
setts, at first remonstrating, soon broke out with an impost 
upon goods imported from the other three colonies of the 
league, (1649.) K^v was this repealed until after a grave 
protest from the rcnimissioners, (1650.) A year or two 
later, Connecticut desired war to be declared against the 
Dutch and Indinm. Perhaps it was a hasty project ; but it 
found support from Plymouth. Massachusetts, however, 
refused to ente"* into it, and by so doing, nearly broke up the 
confederacy, O 653.) When the confederates agreed, it was 
often about such measi'res as those of persecution, to which 
reference hns been mide, or those of warfare, to which 
we shall arrive ere long. In fact, the United Colonies 
were united chiefly in deeds of violence. In works of jus- 
tice or of generosity, tliey generally broke asunder. "When 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 101 

their union came to an end, after a feeble existence of half 
a century, it was regretted by none. 

The New Enf]rland colonies were not alone in 

Dissen- _ ° 

sions else- tlicsc disturbed relations. New York was long at 
variance with Connecticut on one side, and with 
New Jersey on the other. Pennsylvania had her com- 
plaints against Virginia; Delaware hers against Pennsyl- 
vania. Wherever there was a view from one colony to 
another, it seemed to open as frequently upon scenes of 
controversy as upon those of peace. 
^ . Leaving the colonies themselves, and turning: to 

I'eun and " • 7 o 

Baiti- their proprietors, where they had any, we discover 
the same disposition to strife. When William Penn 
obtained the grant of his domain of Pennsylvania, he knew 
that it encroached upon the claims of the Baltimore family 
of Maryland. Their title to the territory, as far north as 
the fortieth degree of latitude, had been infringed upon, but 
by foreigners — by the Dutch and by the Swedes. It was 
reserved for a fellow-countryman to appropriate it to him- 
self. Soon after the arrival of Penn in America, he met 
Lord Baltimore at Newcastle, but without being able to 
come to any agreement. This did not prevent the Quaker 
from founding his City of Brotherly Love upon the land 
claimed by the rival proprietor, (1682.) At another meet- 
ing, in the following year, Penn consented to recognize the 
Baltimore claim, but only on condition that a price should 
be fixed for a portion bordering upon the Delaware, of 
which he naturally wished to retain the sovereignty. But 
as this offer was refused, while another mode of settlement, 
proposed by Baltimore, was refused in turn by Penn, the 
two proprietors again separated in anger. When Balti- 
more renewed his demands, a few months after, Penn threw 
himself upon the Dutch title, to which he claimed succes- 
sion through the Duke of York, (1683.) After such a plea 
9* 



102 PART 11. 1G38-17G3. 

as this, there was no hope of justice from Pcnn. Appeal 
was marie to England, wliere sentence was rendered against 
Baltimore, without being actually executed, (1685.) It 
was three quarters of a century before the boundary be- 
tween Pennsylvania and Maryland was definitely deter- 
mined. • 

The relations of the colonies to the mother coun- 
folh?''' ^iT' that is, to England, so far as they depended 
mother upon general principles, were brought forward in an 
countiy. ^^^^.jj^^, p^j.^ q£ ^|jg chapter. It is time to take them 

up with reference to the actual course of events. 
The Allegiance to the crown was one of the inborn 

ciwvn. principles of the English colonist. It extended from 
him to those who had come from other lands than England. 
The Kin<]j of England was the head of the church and the 
head of the state — the supreme civil and mihtary power, to 
whoni all the magistrates, all the tribunals, all the laws, all 
the proceedings of the colonies, were subject. Even in the 
charter governments, the most independent of all, the royal 
supremacy was universally recognized. At the same time, 
the exact limits between the sovereignty of the king and 
the independence of the colony were nowhere defined. In 
the royal provinces, where the dependence upon the crown 
was the greatest, the rights of the popular bodies were often 
most pertinaciously asserted. 

As striking an exhibition as any other of the rela- 
ii.^and^ tions of the colonies with royalty is to be found in 
Massa- the twcnty-fivc years' controversy between Charles 
11. and Massachusetts. When the restoration of 
that monarch occurred, nearly a year was allowed to elapse, 
after the certain intelligence of the event, Avithout any proc- 
lamation of the royal authority in Massaciiusetts. Tliere 
was a good deal, in fact, for the colony to do, in order to 
make the proclamation satisfactory to all concerned. In the 



COLONIAL UELATIONS. 103 

first place, she had to renounce all such theories as John 
Eliot had propounded in his Christian .Commonwealth, con- 
cerning the superiority of the Mosaic over the English insti- 
tutions. In the next place, she had "to reject, as an in- 
fringement of right, any parliamentary or royal imposition 
prejudicial to the country." So that, between her own 
republicans on the one side, and the monarchists of England 
on the other, there was some dithculty in steering a course. 
At length, the king being proclaimed, John Norton and 
Simon Bradstreet were sent as agents, with letters and 
instructions half servile and half defiant, to seek the royal 
presence and obtain a confirmation of the colonial institu- 
tions, (1662.) The king confirmed the charter, but added 
requisitions that were likely to set the whole colony in an 
uproar. All laws, he said, against the royal authority, must 
be repealed ; the oath of allegiance to the crown must be 
exacted ; the Book of Common Prayer must be tolerated, 
and the sacraments administered to " all of honest lives ; " 
nay, tlie freeholders of the colony, if of suitable estate and 
character, must be admitted as its freemen. Such was the 
spite of Massachusetts men, in relation to the royal demands, 
even against their own helpless agents, that the minister 
Norton sank, it is said, under the general displeasure, 
(1663.) The arrival of four royal commissioners, in the fol- 
lowing year, w^as followed by a celebration of the church ser- 
vice, and by a law from the assembly, declaring freeholders, 
on certain conditions, to be freemen, (1664.) The next 
proceedings of the commissioners resulted in the temporary 
toleration of churchmen and Quakers, (1665.) It must 
have seemed as if the very foundations of Massachusetts 
had been thrown down. 

Long years of controversy between the colony and the 
king ensued. The departure of the commissioners was fol- 
lowed by the almost immediate arrest of the changes 



104 PART II. 1638-1763. 

^ which they had introduced. A summons from the 

Loss of -' 

the Mas- king, calhug upon the colony to send representa- 
setts^and ^ivcs to auswcr thc'chargcs against it, was diso- 
other beyed, (16GG.) Yet five years were allowed to 
elapse before the contumacy of the Massachusetts 
people was noticed, and then they were virtually passed 
over as "almost on the brink of renouncing any de- 
pendence on the crown," (1G71.) Quite a considerable 
interval succeeded, in which agents after agents upheld the 
colony against its adversaries in England. Even bribes 
were resorted to, the Province of JMaine and two thousand 
guineas being offered to the king himself. But it was too 
late. The royal will was roused ; the warrant went forth 
that the colony must submit, if it would have any charter 
at all. The magistrates were for yielding; the representa- 
tives — that is, the mass of the colonists — were for resist- 
ing ; and while they clung to their charter, it was declared 
to be forfeited, (1G84.) The king immediately appointed a 
governor for Massachusetts, Plymouth, Maine, and New 
Hampshire ; but Charles dying, another oihcial was sent 
out by James II., bearing the title of president of the same 
colonies, with the addition of the King's Province in Rhode 
Island, (1G85.) The same year, the Rhode Island and 
Connecticut charters were put in abeyance. 
Pallia- Next to the crown was the Parliament of the 

nieut. mother country. But this was by no means so 
fully acknowledged in the colonies. "We have not ad- 
mitted appeals to your authority," says the Massachusetts 
General Court to Parliament, " being assured they cannot 
stand with the liberty and power granted us by our char- 
ter,". (1G4G,) — a declaration which was followed up by 
Edward Winslow, then the agent for Massachusetts in 
England. " If the Parliament of England," he says, 
" should impose laws upon us, having no' burgesses in the 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 105 

House of Commons nor capable of a summons by reason of 
the vast distance, we should lose the liberties and freedom 
of Englishmen indeed." It was on these very grounds 
that the sway claimed for Parliament was again and again 
resisted. It was, however, again and again obeyed. 
Navi -a- Parliament asserted its powers at an early day. 
tiou acts. During the commonwealth, when it ruled supreme 
over England, it stretched forth its sceptre over America 
by an act requiring all colonial exports to England to be 
shipped only in American or EngUsh vessels, (1651.) 
This was extended by Parliament and the crown together, 
after the restoration of royalty, in a second act, ordering 
that most of the exports from the colonies should be shipped 
only to England, or to an English colony, and in American 
or English vessels, as before, (IGGO.) Two or three years 
afterwards, it was enacted that almost all imports mto the 
colonies should be shipped only from England or from an 
P^nglish colony, and in American or English vessels, as by 
the preceding statutes, (1GG3.) These were the famous 
navigation acts, the first assertions of parliamentary au- 
thority over the commerce of the colonies. How grievous 
to these such restrictions were needs not to be dwelt upon. 
They Avere followed up, at no long interval, by 
duties upon the export and import of certain " enu- 
merated articles'" from one colony to another, (1G72.) This 
was interfering, not only with the trade, but with the very 
constitution of the colonies. It required a new body of of- 
ficials in the shape of revenue officers, appointed, of course, 
by the crown. Royal custom houses were also needed. It 
was soon proposed to demand an oath from the goyernors 
of New England — where trade was busiest, and discontent 
rifest — that they would enforce the commercial restrictions. 
But John Leverett, governor of Massachusetts, refused, 
and the General Court of the same colony soon passed a 



106 PART II. 1638-1763. 

resolution " that the acts of navigation are an invasion of 
the rights and privileges of the subjects of his majesty in 
this colony, they not being represented in the Parliament," 
(1676-79.) A notice of the appointment of a collector 
of the royal customs for New England was torn down in 
Boston by order of the colonial magistrates, (1680.) But 
it was in vain, as we shall soon find. Parliament had 
adopted the princij^le of regulating the colonial trade, and 
was not likely to yield to the ebullitions of Boston, or of 
any other place in the colonies. 

^^ ^j The authority of the mother country, whether 

goveiQ- royal or parliamentary, was represented by a con- 
stantly increasing number of officials in the colonies. 
Of these none were so prominent as the royal governors, 
to whom we now arrive in pursuing the account of the 
colonial relations. 

Nowhere did things go worse than in Virginia, 
ill vir- of which Sir William Berkeley, a loyal cavalier, 
^""^' had been governor for more than twenty years.* 
Under his influence, the very assembly of the province became 
a burden, protracting its sessions and extending its preroga- 
tives, providing a perpetual (so termed) instead of an annual 
revenue for the royal officials, and appointing county courts 
to levy certain imposts which were within its own province 
alone. To these difficulties were added others arising from 
the liostile bearing of the Indians, with whom the governor 
was disposed to temporize far more than suited the ardent 
Virginians, (1676.) 

Bacon-s ^H »t oucc, the proviucc rose. One of the coun- 
rci.ciiion. ^.j]^ Nathaniel Bacon, being refused a commission 
against the Indians, declared that he would take out a com- 
mission of his own; at which the governor unseated him 

* From 1641 to 1652, and again from 1660. 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 107 

and declared him a rebel. But lie was not the only one to 
be put down. William Drummond, the first governor of 
North Carolina, and Richard LaAvrence, both men of ener- 
gy and of culture, came out at Jamestown on Bacon's side. 
At tlieir demand, supported by other colonists of influence, 
the assembly by which the governor had been blindly sup- 
ported was dissolved. Bacon, elected to a new assembly, 
carried various measures of reform, besides obtaining a 
commission of commanding officer against the Indians. 
Again declared a rebel, he called a convention, who prom- 
ised to stand by him while he proceeded against the foe 
upon tlie frontier. But on the governor's taking the field 
with armed servants and Indians, supported by some Eng- 
lish men-of-war, Bacon and his party returned to meet 
him. Berkeley retreated, Bacon fired Jamestown, and 
soon after died. The cause which he had staked his all to 
support soon fell to pieces, an^his chief adherents, Drum- 
mond amongst them, were hanged. Lawrence disappeared. 
" That old fool," said the good natured Charles IT., on hear- 
ing of his governor's revenge, "has hanged more men in 
that naked colony than I did here for the murder of my 
fillier." Berkeley died of shame, it is said, in England. 
He left Virginia crushed and desolate. 

Aiuiros New England, consolidated into one province, 
in New Avas givcu ovcr to Sir Edmund Andros, formerly 
'"^'"''' governor of New York, (1G8G.) He made his ap- 
pearance with troops, overthrowing the colonial assemblies, 
if there were any left to overthrow, declaring the town 
organizations at an end, prohibiting the printing press, and 
threatening even the property of the colonists by requiring 
them to take out new deeds of their estates from him. It 
was a part of his commission to procure toleration, especial- 
ly for the church of England. To do this in Boston, he 
saw fit to seize upon one of the Buritan churches to celebrate 



108 PART II. 1638-1763. 

tlie cliurcli service. Kesistance was not attempted, and An- 
dros and his council ruled supreme; nor only over New 
England, but likewise over New York and New Jersey, 
both of which Avere attached to his government, (1688.) 
In fact, he was on the high road to dominion over all the 
colonies. The charters of the Carolinas and of Maryland 
— that is, of every other colony which had a charter, 
save Pennsylvania alone — were menaced, (1G8G-88.) 
A waste of despotism seemed to be opening wherever 
freedom had found a foothold. 

Revohi- Just then came the news of the revolution in 
tion. England, (1689.) It was welcomed by a revolu- 
tion in America. Boston rose against Andros, deposing 
him, and declaring Simon Bradstreet governor. The 
reaction was by no means gentle. The churchmen, whom 
Andros had favored, and who supported him, sent an 
address to King William, bewailing the peril to them from 
the returning " anarchy and confusion of government under 
which this country hath so long groaned." Rhode Island 
and Connecticut went farther than Massachusetts, and 
resumed their treasured charters. New York took up 
arms under Jacob Leisler and a committee of safety. 
The other colonies, less sorely oppressed than those of 
New England and New York, received the news in com- 
parative tranquillity. A party in Maryland rose, but not 
against oppression so much as for the sake of sedition. 
The proprietary government fell, as has been told. 
Put not It soon appeared, however, that the English 
liberty, revolution was not intended to be interpreted as 
setting the colonies free. The charter of 1691 proved it 
in Massachusetts. The execution of Jacob Leisler and 
his son-in-law, Milbourne, in New York, by orders, how- 
ever, of the new governor, Colonel Sloughter, rather than 
by those of the king, was equally conclusive, (1691.) 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. 109 

The appointment of Andros — tlie same Sir Edmund who 
liad trampled upon both Massachusetts and New York — 
to the government of Virginia* was a still more stunning 
demonstration, (1692.) 

,., , A new attempt at colonial consolidation soon 

in New occurrcd. Colonel Benja»iin Fletcher, a man of 
far less character than Andros, was made gov- 
ernor of New York and Pennsylvania, including Dela- 
ware ; the proprietary government in the latter colonies 
being then suspended, (1G92.) lie was also declared 
commander-in-chief of the Connecticut and the New Jer- 
sey militia. Soon after taking possessifin of New York 
and Pennsylvania, Fletcher proceeded to Connecticut to 
take command of the militia. They assembled at his 
orders; but instead of listening to his commission, the 
senior officer, Captain Wadsworth, cried, " Beat the 
drums ! " On Fletcher's attempting to persevere. Wads- 
worth exclaimed, " If I am interrupted again, I'll make 
the sun shine tlirough you in a moment," (1G93.) Thus 
baffled in his military functions, the governor returned to 
his civil powers in New York and Pennsylvania. The 
latter province, after resisting his demands for a grant of 
money, yielded only on condition that it should be dis- 
bursed by the provincial treasurer — a condition which 
Fletcher would not, and, if obedient to his instructions, 
could not allow, (1694.) New York itself was restive 
under his control. A tax for the support of ministers 
and the erection of churches had led to a debate between 
the council and the assembly; the council proposing that the 
governor should nominate the new clergy, but the assembly 
opposing. " You take it upon you," declared Fletcher to 
the assembly, " as if you were dictators ; " but the assem 

* He proved, however, to be a comparatively good governor there 

10 



110 PART II. 1638-1763. 

•bly stood fast, and soon carried their point, " that the 
vestry and the churchwardens have a power to call their 
own minister," a dissenter, if so they pleased, although 
the governor Avas strong for the church of England, 
(1695.) It had been proposed by a clergyman of this 
church to combine New. York, New Jersey, Connecticut, 
and Rhode Island in a single province, with a bishop, 
residing at New York, for its civil as w^ell as ecclesiastical 
head. But this, more naturally even than Governor 
Fletcher's designs, came to nought. Fletcher himself, 
falling into disgrace at home, was recalled, leaving his 
attempts at consc^idation an utter failure, (1G98.) 

The troubles implied in the various colonial rela- 

General a 

strict- tions account for much that has been ascribed to 
other causes. It has been so common to consider 
the Puritan severity as a thing apart, that one does not 
immediately seize upon the fact of the almost universal 
strictness that prevailed. Virginia, for instance, gave no 
harbor to Puritanism. Yet the Virginia code thunders 
against "mercenary attorneys," (1643,) burgesses "dis- 
guised with over much drink," (1659,) tippling houses, 
(1676,) and Sunday travelling, (1692.) Maryland de- 
clares with as much solemnity as Massachusetts against 
profanity, (1642.) Nor w^ere precautions of a different 
nature neglected. Both Maryland (1642-1715) and New 
York (1665) make it necessary to procure a passport be- 
fore traversing or leaving the colonial precincts. It was 
from a similar impulse that the " handicraftsmen " of Bos- 
ton petitioned the General Court of IMassachusetts to be 
protected against " strangers from all jDarts " who Avere 
interfering with their trade, not to say their influence in 
the community, (1677.) All over the colonies, there 
reigned a spirit of watchfulness, perhaps more grim, but 
certainly not more resolute, in one place than in another. 



COLONIAL RELATIONS. Ill 

It might be increased or diminished by the social or the 
religious temper of the colonists ; the New Englander was 
likely to be more upon his guard than the Virginian. But 
the spirit was the common growth of the new country, 
whose depths were still hid in the wilderness, whose borders 
were still bristling with the arrow or the steel. 
_, ., , The perils of the frontier are yet to be described. 

Penis of A •' 

the frou- All arouud the colonists, there extended a line, or 
rather a series of lines, one after another, of sus- 
pected neighbors or of open foes. The Indian lay in 
ambush on this side ; on that, the European, Swede, Dutch- 
man, Spaniard, or Frenchman, stood in threatening attitude.' 
Nor was the land alone overspread with enemies ; the waters 
swarmed with pirates and with buccaneers ; nay, the very 
air seemed to be filled with ghostly shapes and with appall- 
ing sounds. The world of spirits, as the colonists believed, 
was agitated by the wars amongst the races of America. 



CHAPTER IV. 

Indian Wars. 

« hit of ^^ ^^ ^^^ always that justice is clone to the spirit 
the In- of the Indians. They are pitied when they are not 
viHfied. Yet there are few passages in human his- 
tory more indicative of native nobleness in man than those 
Mdiich bring before us the trustful and the generous dealings 
of the red men with the early adventurers to their shores. 
" Welcome, Englishmen," cried the sagamore Samoset to 
the Plymouth settlers, in words caught from English fisher- 
men. The greater sachem Massasoit pledged his friendship 
to the same colony by a formal treaty, (1621.) When the 
tribe of Powhatan complained of the strangers in Virginia, 
their chief replied, " They do but take a little waste land." 
Even when the anger of Powhatan was kindled, and so 
strongly as to lead him to plan the destruction of the 
English, beginning with their leader, John Smith, whom he 
had taken captive, there was still the maiden Pocahontas 
to plead for mercy and for peace, (1G07.) 
s m-it of '^^^ ^P^^'^*^ ^^ ^^^^ English Avas generally very dif- 
tiie Eng- ferent. Their wrath was ever easy to be inflamed, 
''^''' ever difficult to be quenched. To most of them the 
natives were outcasts, " of the cursed race of Ham," fit 
to be deluded, insnared, enslaved, or exterminated. But 
this was not the spirit of all. There were some to be 
touched by the original confidence of the Indians, some to 
repay it by trust and by charity. " Concerning the killing 

(112) 



INDIAN WARS. 113 

of those poor Indians," wrote John Robinson, the Puritan 
minister, from Holland to his brethren at Plymouth, in 
relation to the slaughter of several natives suspected of 
conspiring against that settlement — " O, how happy a thing 
had it been, if you had converted some, before you had 
killed any. Besides, where blood is once begun to be shed, 
it is seldom stanched of a long time after. . . . It is 
also a thing more glorious in men's eyes than j^leasing in 
God's, or convenient for Christians, to be a terror to poor 
barbarous people," (1G23.) 

Mission- ^^ ^^'^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ King James of England, in 
ary la- issuiug the patent of Virginia, to civilize and con- 
vert the natives of the country which he was giving 
to his companies. The London Company, accordingly, in 
conjunction with individuals both in England and in Amer- 
ica, made some exertion to carry out the royal design. A 
school for natives was planned, as has been mentioned, 
but without being established. The colony of Plymouth, 
listening to Robinson's appeal, recognized the possibility of 
brotherhood with the Indians. Laws were formally enact- 
ed to .provide for the conversion of the natives to the Chris- 
tian faith, (1636.) Elsewhere, likewise, the same views 
found advocates ; and more than one colonist became the 
friend, the teacher, nay, the martyr to the Indians. 
The May- Obtaining an English grant of Martha's Vine- 
iiewsand yard, and then confirming his title by purchase 
from the natives, Thomas Mayhew began almost 
immediately to teach those who remained with him upon 
the island, (1643.) A more active missionary, however, 
was his son Thomas, who, after ten years' exertions, 
perished on a voyage to England, whither he^was going for 
aid to his mission, (1657.) His father, and afterwards his 
son, continued the work to which he had sacrificed himself. 
Meanwhile John Eliot had begun liis labors on the Massa- 
10-^ 



•^^* PART ir. 1638-1-63. 

chusett. mainland. Preparing himself by the study of the 
Luhan tongue, of which he afterwards Composed I ^ am 
n.ar, he met a party of Indians, for the first time as tl2 
preacher, at Nonantum. "Upon October 28, 1646" he 
wntes with touching simplicity, " four of us (having sought 
GocO went unto the Indians inhabiting our boun°ds, ,v 't 
d ..re ,0 make known the things of their peace to them" 
Thenceforward Eliot went on founding and rearing Indian 
churches, now travelling from the Merrimac to clpe Cod 
and now labormg at the translation of the CatechiLn, ami 

(ICClir ' '"" ''^ '^"'"^^"^ "' ''' -"™-' 

sm^,. .^°"' E''0' and the Mayhews, as well as other 
missionaries to the Indians, received their chief 
en™„ragen,ent from a Society "for Promoting and P ol- 
gatmg the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England" iicor 
porated by act of Parliament Cl CM \ t ,', 

aided tl,P 1 I "'"ament, (1C49.) Large collections 

a ded the labors and provided for the exj>enses of those 

rsmg fathers, 'is the address which Eliot uses in givin., 
ae society an account of his labors. He writes to Lert 
Boyle apparently the life and soul of the society, as his 
fright honorable, right charitable, and iudefati.a le m 
ing father." New England itself did compararively li 
Massachusetts granted lands to the converted Indians but' 

Their:' ^T'T'"*^ *^'" --'■'"' *«^" ^- 
llie work, as a colonial one, languished. 

i!es„it,. TJ^e results were therefore inconsiderable. "RHiat 
the Indians, or many of them, thought of the mis- 
sions maybe gathered from,the answer of. Narra« 

t™ch - -""f^T '"'^'"^^^ "^'^P'^'"" ^- P-™i"=0" 
fir f wlT"' r^" " ^° "'''''' *'- English good 
fii.,t. What many of the English thought of the missLs 
may be gathered from the declaration of Daniel Go Tn 



INDIAN WARS. 115 

superintendent of the converts, — '"' a pillar," says Eliot, 
"in our Indian work," — that he. was "afraid to be seen 
in the streets," at the time of much ill will against the 
natives. Thirty years after the missionary enterprise be- 
gan, there were nominally upwards of three thousand 
converts, (1673.) But the lirst church which Eliot found- 
ed — that at Natick — was, a few years subsequent to his 
death, but " a small church of seven men and three 
Avomen ; their pastor, Daniel Tohkohwarapait," (1698.) 
Even before Eliot departed, he had seen his work declin- 
ing. Endeavoring to get out a new edition of his version 
of the Scriptures, he wrote, " I am deep in years, and 
sundry say, if I do not procure it printed while I live, it 
is not within the prospect of human reason whether ever, 
or when, or how it may be accompHshed." Tilings must 
have been low indeed, when the mere reprint of the Bible 
was so difficult. But "his charity," to use Eliot's deafh- 
bed words, " held out still," and all that he could do was 
done when he died, (1690.) 

Wars in The wars with the Indians were more effective. 
Virginia Earliest of these was the war of Opechancanough, 
Mary. Powhatan's successor, against the colony of Vir- 
land. ginia. Provoked by the murder of one of their 
warriors, the Indians suddenly fell upon the English settle- 
ments, which, it seems, they would have utterly annihilated, 
but for the warning given by a converted countryman of 
theirs to a Jamestown settler, (1622.) Hostilities, con- 
tinued at intervals for many years, were revived by a 
second surprise of the colony by the Indians, (1642.) 
Opechancanough being taken prisoner and slam, his con- 
federates made peace, giving up all the land between the 
York and James Rivers, (1616.) In this latter war, Mary- 
land had been involved. Thirty years later, the two colo- 
nies were again united in repelling the Susquehannas, with 
some other tribes, (1675-77.) 



116 PART IT. 1G38-1763. 



Peqiiot 



war. 



Meanwhile, more tlangerous conflicts had arisen 
in New England. Tlie first actual war with the 
Indians there occurred in consequence of some murders by 
the Pequots and the Narragansets ; the latter tribe extend- 
ing aJong the western shore of Narraganset Bay, the for- 
mer stretching from the Thames to the Connecticut Rivers. 
The Narraganset chief, Canonicus, making amends for his 
followers, the expedition which Massachusetts equipped to 
avenge the murdered was directed chiefly against the 
Pequots, with the result, however, of exciting rather than 
punishing them, (1636.) They were on the point of per- 
suading the Narragansets to make common cause with 
them, when Roger Williams, at the peril of his life, sought 
the wigwam of Canonicus, in order to avert an alliance 
which would have threatened Massachusetts, not to say 
New England, with desolation. It was the return which 
the exile made for the persecution from which he had but 
just escaped. Instead of joining the Pequots, the Narra- 
gansets sent their young sachem Miantonimoh to make 
friends Avith the people at Boston. At about the same 
time, the alliance of the Mohegans, a tribe of Northern 
Connecticut, under Uncas, was secured by the Connecticut 
colonists. As the spring opened, the colonial forces, 
amounting in all to little more than one hundred, with 
two or three hundred Indian allies, took the field, and in 
four months swept the unhappy Pequots from the face of 
the earth. Nearly a thousand of them were slain ; the 
rest, whether men or women, old or young, being reduced 
to captivity and slavery. Their territory was divided 
between Massachusetts and Connecticut, (I'GSy.) 
Narra- Notwithstanding the alliance Avith Miantonimoh 

gansets. ^^^^ f]^Q Narragauscts, they Avere soon treated as 
foes. Defeated by the INIohegans, with whom they went to 
war, the Narragansets saw their chieftain a prisoner. He 



INDIAN WARS. 117 

was saved by the interposition of his friend Gorton, the 
founder of Warwick, only to be given up again by the 
commissioners of the United Colonies to the Mohegan 
Uncas, by whom he was immediately despatched. To 
shield Uncas from the revenge of the Narragansets, the 
colonies furnished him with a body guard, and even took 
up arms, when Pessacus, the brother and successor of 
IMiantonimoh, began war against his Mohegan enemies. 
Nor did Pessacus avert the storm thus conjured up, but 
by submitting to make amends to both the Mohegans and. 
the United Colonies, (1()45.) The tribute which he then 
consented to pay was afterwards wrenched from liim by 
violence, (IGoO.) 

King ^ quarter of a century later, and the ill-treated 

Philip, tnhe of Miantonimoh and Pessacus were drawn 
into the great w^ar that goes by the name of King Philip's. 
He Avas Pometacum, the nephew and successor of Massa- 
soit, with wdiom the Plymouth colonists had made an early 
treaty, the chief of the Pokanokets or Wampanoags, a 
tribe on the eastern shore of Narraganset Bay. Suspected 
and assailed by the people of Plymouth, whose authorities 
claimed jurisdiction over him, Philip (to call him by his 
familiar name) was at length accused of hatching a gener- 
al conspiracy amongst the Indians. The accuser, a native 
of bad character, although professedly converted, was slain 
by some of Philip's men, three of whom were presently 
iianged, without any actual proof of their being the mur- 
derers, by orders of the court at Plymouth. Philip wept, it 
is said, at the idea of -warfare with the English. But he 
could not keep peace with them ; and so began a war, by 
far the most deadly of all betw^een the English and the 
Indians, (1G75.) 

Driven almost immediately from his domains about 
Mount Hope, and soon afterwards from his retreats in 



118 PAUT II. 1638-1763. 

the Rhode Island swamps, Philip led his few war- 

War 

through- i"iors iiito the heart of Massachusetts, where the In- 
out New Jif^ns had already risen in arms. Thence the circle 

of hostilities spread on all sides, to the tribes of the 
Connecticut valley in the west, to those of the Merrmiac 
valley in the east, and farther still, to the Abcnakis of 
Maine — the latter, however, being engaged in warfare of 
their own, unconnected with Philip and his allies. Against 
these "was arrayed the whole of New England. Rhode 
Island, it is true, rather suffered than fought ; nor were 
Maine and New Hampshire, then the dependencies of Mas- 
sachusetts, able to take any active part. But the United 
Colonies were all in arms. A, few hundred combatants 
were the most that could be mustered in any single battle ; 
yet the strife was more than proportioned to the numbers or 
the resources on either side. Month after month witnessed 
scenes of ambush, assault, devastation, and butchery. The 
Avork of blood Avas as savagely done by the English as by 
the Indians. 

As Avinter drcAV nigh, the suspicions of the colo- 
tioii ofthe "^^^ ^ere excited by Uncas, the Mohegan, against 
Nariag<an- ^ig old focs, the Narragauscts. They had given 

pledges of peace at the beginning of the Avar ; nor 
Avere there now any signs of hostility on their part, except 
the shelter AA'hich they Avere charged with gii'ing to the 
broken Pokanokets. But the commissioners of the United 
Colonies, the successors of those AAdio had given up Mian- 
tonimoh and humbled Pessacus, declared Avar against the 
!N'arragans(*ts and their chief, Canonchet. It took but a 
few days to oveiTun the Narraganset territory, and to de- 
feat tlie tribe in a fearful fight Avliich cost the colonial forces 
dear. Driven from their forests and their fastnesses, the 
Narragansets spread oA'cr the adjoining lands, and even as 
far as within eiditeen miles of Boston. " We Avill die to 



INDIAN WARS. 119 

the last man," exclaimed Canonchet, when taken in the 
sprmg, " but not be slaves to the Englishman." He was 
slain, and his nation laid low forever. 

The fall of the Narragansets was accompanied by 
that of the tribes within the limits of Massachusetts. 
Most of the survivors turned their backs upon their ancient 
hunting grounds in search of freedom in the north and west. 
Philip, Avho had mourned over the beginning of the war, 
was too strong in heart to outlive its close. He sought the 
home of his father*, and there, after losing his wife, his 
child, and most of his few remaining warriors, he was shot 
by a renegade Pokanoket. Ilis boy, the last of his line, 
was sold into slavery in Bermuda. His race was given 
over to the executioner and the shu^e dealer ; his territory 
went to Plymouth, and, half a century afterwards, to Rhode 
Island. But it was no bloodless victory that the colonies 
had won. '' The towns are so drained of men," wrote Lev- 
erett, governor of Massachusetts, in the thick of the contest, 
" we are not able to send out any more." Six hundred of 
the best colonists had perished ; ten times that number, and 
more, had suffered from the losses and the agonies which 
befoll even the survivors of a war. Six hundred dwellin2;s 
were burned ; many a town was partially, many a one totally 
destroyed. The mere expenses of the war amounted to some- 
thing enormous in comparison with the actual means of the 
colonies. It is pleasant to meet with the record of a contri- 
bution of five hundred pounds, collected by an elder brother 
of Increase Mather, a Puritan minister in Dublin. The 
Avar had lasted a little more than a year, (1G76.) 

There still remained a few Indian war parties to 

Peace. . , * 

deal with in the Connecticut valley, as well as the 
Abenaki tribes in Maine. The former were soon driven 
off; but tlie latter kept to their arms until peace was liter- 
ally bought of them by Sir Edmund Andros, the governor 



120 PART II. 1638-1763. 

of New York, to which province, it may be remembered, 
the eastern part of Maine then bebnged, (1C78.) 
Abenaids The Abcnakis were soon in arms again. Eidisted 
in arms, qj-^ ^\^^, g[^Q ^f ^jj^ French in the wars to be related 
by and by, the eastern tribes repeatedly laid waste the 
English settlements. A quarter of a century (1689-1713) 
did not still the passions thus excited. At a time of peace 
between England and France, the colonists of the former 
nation attacked the allies, nay, the very missionaries of the 
latter. Sebastian Rasles, the patriarch of a NorridgCAVock 
village on the Kennebec, where he dwelt alone amidst his 
savage converts, became the object of especial jealousy to 
the government of Massachusetts. An armed expedition 
failed in making him captive, (1722.) But a renewed 
assault was more successful, the venerable priest being 
slain, his chapel sacked, his village destroyed, (1724.) . All 
the tribes of the east entered into the war. The only ally 
of Massachusetts was Connecticut; the efforts to obtain 
support from the Mohawks being answered by the advice 
that Massachusetts should do justice to her foes, (1722.) 
Peace was made, after a five years' conflict. It was broken 
more than once in the later French wars, (1744, 1754.) 
But the Abenakis submitted at last, (1760.) 

The central and southern colonies were for many 
thTce^^ years undisturbed by Indian wars. Treaties with 
tie and ^lic Fivc Nations — the more easily made and kept 

couth. , „ .-,,..,, 

as these tribes were contmually at enmity with the 
French of Canada — protected the frontiers of the colonies 
of the centre. Those of the south, for some time unassailed, 
were at length overrun. 

^y^. North Carolina, after frequent aggressions on the 

North part of her settlers, was SAvept by the Tuscaroras, 

(1711.) The aid of South Carolina, with that of 



her Indian allies, was called in, before peace could be r 



INDIAN WARS. 121 

stored, even for a brief period. Soon breaJdng out again, in 
consequence of the continued injuries inflicted upon the 
Indians, the war grew so threatening as to require the inter- 
position of Virginia as well as of South Carolina. The 
three colonies together forced the Tuscaroras to fly to their 
kindred, the Fire Nations of New York, by whom, as was 
formerly mentioned, they were received as a sixth tribe of 
the confederacy, (1713.) 

In South South Carolina, some time before involved in strife 
Caroiiua. ^-^i^ ^|^g Indian aUies of the Spaniards in Florida, 
was presently threatened with a more serious war. The 
tribes of the south, especially the Yamassees, aggrieved by 
the treatment which they received from the colonists, dashed 
upon their plantations, and, with revenge and slaughter, 
pressed northward towards Charleston. So great was the 
peril, that the governor armed the slaves of the province, 
besides obtaining a law from the assembly authorizing the 
conscription of freemen. These means, backed by the re- 
sources of North Carohna and Virginia, averted the ruin 
that appeared to be approaching. The Yamassees, driven 
back with their confederates, were forced to seek refuge in 
Florida, (1715.) 

^^.^j^ Nearly half a century elapsed before the Indians 

Chero- took up the liatclict in the south. The Cherokees, 
invaded first by the forces of the Carohnas and Vir- 
ginia, and then by the royal troops, at that time carrying on 
the last French war, retorted with sword and fire, (1759-60.) 
But the English and the colonial soldiery together proved 
too much for the Cherokees, who were soon reduced to 
humiliating terms of peace, (1761.) 

Meantime, the western settlements had begun to 

western bear the brunt of Indian warfare. Pennsylvania 

*^'^'*^^' was attacked, just as the final contest with the 

French began, (1755,) by the Delawares and Shawanoes, 

11 



122 PAllT II. 3638-1763. 

tlie former of whom had been infamously driven from their 
land by the Pennsylvanians, or their proprietors, many 
years before. Other tribes, joining with these, spread 
havoc along all the western borders of the colonies, until 
peace was conquered, (1758.) 

Poniiac's The French war over, (1763,) the same tribes, 
war. ^yjjjj others of varied name and race, united under 
the great Ottawa chieftain, Pontiac, in one simultaneous 
attempt to clear the western country of the English inva- 
ders. Such an onslaught, occurring at an earlier period, 
might have driven the English, not only from the west but 
from the cast. But made against them when they had just 
prevailed against the hosts of France, the attacks of the 
Indians, though at first successful, were met and decisively 
subdued, (17G4.) ^ 

Indians Some sad and strange events, in connection with 
in Peim- the war thus closed, must be mentioned, for the sake 
of the illustration which they offer of the passions so 
long dividing the English and the Indians. A number of 
Pennsylvanians, opposed to their own authorities, and ex- 
cited with suspicion and hatred against all of Indian blood, 
made such demonstrations against the Indian converts of 
the Moravian missionaries, for some time at work in Penn- 
sylvania, that the assembly ordered the Indians to be 
removed to Philadelphia. Hardly w^as this done, when the 
settlei^ of Paxton, a frontier town, put to death a handful of 
Indians lingering at Conestoga, pursuing and slaying some 
who, for safety's sake, had been lodged in the Lancaster 
jail. A force of from five to fifteen hundred borderers then 
set out on a march against Philadelphia, where they intended 
to seize the Indians transported thither, if not to make 
themselves masters of the city and the province altogether. 

* The extreme Avcstem tribes remained, in arms till 1765. 



INDIAN WARS. 123 

They were not without their sympathizers in Pliiladelphia ; 
but those who were prepared to resist them took so deter- 
mined a course as to avert the dangers of the insurrection. 
The show of force in the city persuaded the borderers to 
retire, (17G3-G4.) 

The tomahawk Avas not yet buried in the west or 
Wilis', hut "^ the south. Year after year some party or some 
the issue ^j-jj^g ^f Indians broke loose upon the frontiers. But 

decided. 

the question had long been decided as to tlie hands 
into which victory was to falL The scattered tribes, ill 
provided with arms or stores, with discipline or skill, had 
fallen away, from the first, before the concentrated numbers 
and accumulated resources of the colonists. Whatever indi- 
vidual bravery could do, wliatever the undying independ- 
ence of any single tribe could achieve, was all in vain, 
before the resistless advance of the English. Nay, not of 
the English alone, but of the Indians themselves, allied with 
the conquerors of their countrymen. But for such as joined 
the stranger, the conquest would have been slower, although 
none the less sure. 

Later The Indian wars form by no means a bright chap- 

niissions. ^gj, ^j^ q^j. lygtory. But, as we found something to 
light up the early, so we find something to light up the later 
relations of the Indians and the English. The missions, 
begun by the Mayhews and by Eliot, had never been aban- 
doned in Massachusetts. As time passed, and the native 
race grew thinner upon its former soil, new stations were 
taken, to reach the remoter tribes. A mission at Stock- 
bridge, at first in the charge of John Sergeant, afterwards 
obtained no less a superintendent than Jonathan Edwards, 
(1737-50.) A more radiant name is that of David Brain- 
erd, of Connecticut, who, after laboring between Stockbridge 
and Albany, turned southwards to Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey, (1744.) The exertions of a few years so enfeebled 



124 PART II. 1638-1763. 

him that he returned to the Connecticut valley only to die, 
(1747.) His place was taken in Pennsylvania by Mora- 
vian missionaries, (1748,) whose labors, protracted to a 
much later period, came to such sad results as have just been 
described. The missionary would convert the Indians ; the 
colonist would hunt them to death. Alas, that so little was 
wrought by the friend and the teacher, in comparison with 
the vast achievements of the foe and the destroyer ! 



CHAPTER V. 

Dutch "Wars. 
^ Returning to. trace the fortunes of the Dutch 

Wars 

within- settlement of New Netherland, we immediately 
find it, like its English neighbors, at war with the 
Indians, whom we may call Manhattans of the Algon- 
quin race. Vexed by the traders, oppressed by the officials 
of the colony, the Manhattans had provocation enough 
to take up arms at an early period. But the vicinity of 
their dreaded foes, the Mohawks of the Five Nations, who 
were disposed to be friends with the Dutch, kept them at 
peace until peace was impossible. The incursions of the 
Indians into the Dutch settlements, and the horrid massa- 
cres inflicted by the Dutch in return, were of the same 
nature as the hostilities already described, (1G40-43.) A 
temporary truce was instantly broken by a general war, 
spreading from the main land to the islands, and devas- 
tating almost the whole of the colony. But for a company 
of English settlers, just fresh from encounters with the 
Indians, it would have gone hard with New Netherland. 
As it was, the exhaustion of the colony was as great as 
that of its foes, when a treaty terminated the war, (1643-45.) 
Thrice, however, within the next twenty years, the Indians 
rose against the still oppressive Dutchmen, (1655, 1658, 
16G3.) 

The increase of New Netherland was arrrested by 
11 * (125) 



126 PART II. 1638-1763. 

these repeated wars. A contemporary docnment* 
upon (1644) dwells upon the iavorable 2)rosp<'ets of 
K ether- ^^^^ colony after the fur trade was thrown open, 
land. (1638,) as previously mentioned. " At which time," 
we are told, " the inhabitants there resident not only spread 
themselves far and wide, but new colonists came thither 
from fatherland, and the neighboring English, as well from 
Virginia as from New England, removed under us." The 
hopes thus inspired are expressly stated to have been 
blasted by the Indian wars. 

Had the wars never occurred, the colony would 

Internal •' 

restric- have had no rapid progress. In itself it was divided 
tions. ^^ what may be called castes. The patroons, for 
instance, were an order by themselves, not necessarily hos- 
tile to the authorities or unfriendly to the colonists, yet often 
proving to be one or both. Then the colony lay at the 
mercy of the company and its director, whose supremacy 
was shared by none but a few officials and councillors. 
The attempts at representation on the part of the more 
substantial colonists, were of no avail. Boards of twelve, 
eight, and nine men were successively established, with the 
director's consent, but without any power to restrain him or 
to elevate themselves. It was at length resolved by the 
nine men to draw up a statement of their grievances to be 
laid before the government of the mother country. But 
the member charged with preparing the document, Adrian 
Van der Donck, was robbed of his papers, thrown into 
prison, and expelled from the board of the nine men as well 
as from the director's council, in which he had a seat, (1649.) 
Liberated from his imprisonment, Van der Donck set sail 
for Holland, with other representatives of the cause for 
which he had suffered. His exertions there brouglit about 

* In O'Callaghan's History of New Netherland, Appendix E. 



DUTCH WARS. 127 

a provincial order from the States General, by which the 
West India Company was directed to make some conces- 
sions to tlie colony, (1G5U.) Two years elapse, and we 
find Van der Donck still appealing to the States General for 
justice, (1 G52.) Tlie most that he procured was a municipal 
government for the city (as it was styled) of New Amster- 
dam, the first city of the United States. It was organized 
in the following year, (1G53,) with sheriff, burgomasters, 
and judges, but all appointed by the director, Peter Stuy ve- 
sant, who had carried on for several years a downright war 
in defence of his prerogatives. In resentment against him 
personally much of the vigor belonging to the liberal party 
had been expended. He carried the day, it must be con- 
fessed, notwithstanding the city charter, notwitlistanding 
also the remonstrances of a convention of eiglit towns held 
the same year. 
,, ,. . The measure of arbitrary government was not 

Religious "^ ^ 

persecu- yet full. At the instance of two clergymen of the 
Dutch church, a proclamation from the director ap- 
peared, threatening fines upon all preachers and hearers of 
unlicensed congregations, (105 6.) The first to suffer were 
Lutherans, who were not merely fined, but imprisoned ; then 
some Baptists, who were not merely fined, but banished. 
Soon after, a few Quakers fell into the hands of the per- 
secutors, one of them being subjected to tortures as horrid 
as any inflicted in the English colonies, (1657.) A few 
years afterwards, the remonstrance of a Quaker, John 
Bowne, who had been transported to Holland as a criminal, 
brought upon Director Stuy vesant the censure of the com- 
pany for his oppression, (1662-63.) 

Despite all these drawbacks upon its strength, 
tion of New Netherland was strong enough, with help from 
New Swe- ^j^^ company, to subdue its neighbor of New Swe- 
den. That colony, though reenforced at times, con- 



128 PART II. 1638-17G3. 

tinued in a precarious state, with few settlers and uncertain 
resources. Protested against by the Dutch as interloping 
within their territory, it had nevertheless invited Dutch 
emigrants amongst its own settlers, (1640.) But the New 
Netherland authorities were on the alert. Partly in op- 
position to a Connecticut settlement attempted on the Dela- 
ware, but chiefly in resistance to tlie advances of the Swedes, 
Stuyvesant built his Fort Casimir at the present Newcas- 
tle, (1651.) A new governor, Pysingh, coming to the 
Swedish colony, got possession of the fort without difficulty, 
(1654.) It cost him dear ; for Stuyvesant, with a force of 
several hundred, principally sent from Holland for the pur- 
pose, not only recovered Fort Casimir, but conquered Fort 
Christina and the whole of New Sweden, (1655.) A few 
Swedes swore allegiance to the Dutch ; the rest went home 
or emigrated to the English colonies. The Swedish gov- 
ernment protested against the conquest of its colony ; but 
it had too much upon its hands in Europe to recover its pos- 
sessions in America. So New Sweden came to an end ; 
and the dream of the generous Gustavus Adolphus that he 
was to found a place of refuge from persecution and from 
corruption vanished forever. 

New Am- '^^^*^ vlctorious Wcst India Company hardly knew 
stei. what to do with its conquest. It found a purchaser, 
however, in the city of Amsterdam, which became the mis- 
tress of what had been New Sweden, — portions of our Dela- 
ware and Pennsylvania, — under the name of New Amstel, 
(1656.) This was enlarged by a subsequent purchase so 
as to embrace the Dutch possessions on both banks of the 
Delaware ; in otlier words, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 
Delaware, (1663.) 

En-iish "^"^ ^^^^ dominions of the Dutch, whether West 

aggi-es- India Company or Amsterdam city, were passing 

into other hands. The claims of England to the 



DUTCH WARS. 129 

territory had been asserted, as mentioned in a former chap- 
ter, from a very early period. They lost nothing, it may be 
believed, of their force, as colonies multiplied and lands 
were in continually increasing demand. An old grant from 
the Council for New Enojland* was made to cover Lono; 
Island. Connecticut and Massachusetts pushed on towards 
the Hudson. On the south, parties from Connecticut and 
from Maryland threatened the domains upon the Delaware, 
(1 Go9-63.) Year after year, during a quarter of a century, 
brought some fresh invasion of the English, exciting some 
fresh remonstrance from the Dutch. "• Those of Hartford," 
runs one of the Dutch records, " have not only usurped and 
taken in the lands of Connecticut, but have also beaten 
the servants of their high mightinesses the honored com- 
pany with sticks and plough staves, laming them," (1G40.) 
It is the tone of all the records, querulous and feeble, 
the wail of a colony never numbering more than ten 
thousand against its far more numerous neighbors. Nor 
were its neighbors its only foes. Amongst its own people 
was a large number of Englishmen, emigrants from hostile 
colonies, who naturally became hostile settlers. At one 
time, some English villages of Long Island proclaimed " the 
commonwealth of England and his highness the lord pro- 
tector," (1655.) At another, the towns at the west end of 
the island proclaimed the English king, (1663.) Finally, 
the danger was so great that Peter Stuyvesant, the foe of 
all liberal institutions, called a convention of his province. 
It appears how far the English had pushed their aggressions 
on scanning the meagre list of the towns or settlements 
that were represented. New Amsterdam and Rensselaers- 
wyck head the roll of twelve. The convention favored peace 
with the Indians ; as for the English, why, the English in 
New Netherland alone were '' six to one," (1664.) 

* To the Earl of Stirling, (1635.) 



130 PART II. 1638-1763. 

^^^. Long as the dissensions between tlic English and 

loss of the the Dutch had lasted, neither the colonies nor the 
proTince. j-^^j^j-^gj, countries had gone to war about them. A 
-war of two years (1652-54) between the Dutch and the 
English under Cromwell did not involve their American 
settlements. When England came under Charles II., 
another war with Holland was resolved upon, partly from 
commercial and partly from political motives, the chief 
of the latter being the intimate connection at that time 
between the Dutch and the French. Before war Avas for- 
mally declared, New Netherland was surprised by an Eng- 
lish fleet. It did not come as a national, but as an individ- 
ual expedition. Charles II. had made a grant, as has been 
narrated, of New Netherland to the Duke of York and 
Albany. It had been the Avork of a few months only for the 
duke to buy up other English claims, and collect commis- 
sioners and troops to take possession of his new realms. 
Accompanied by John Winthrop, governor of Connecti- 
cut, who, though amiable and disinterested in most respects, 
was full of determination against the Dutch, the commis- 
sioners, headed by Colonel Nichols, obtained possession of 
tlie province without battle. The terms of the surrender 
l)romised to the conquered their religion, their law of inherit- 
ance, and their trade and intercourse with Holland, (1664.) 
The transaction, at first professedly discountenanced by 
England, was afterwards sustained by her, and finally sub- 
mitted to by Holland in the treaty of Breda, (1667.) 

On the outbreak of fresh hostilities between the 

I.ecovcry 

and final same countries, a few years later, (1672,) New York, 
as New Amsterdam was now called, received the 
rnmmons to capitulate to a Dutch squadron, (1673.) It did 
ro, and was held by the Dutch for upwards of a year, when 
it was once more, and for the last time, surrendered by them, 
(1674.) Thus were the Dutch, and with them the Swedes, 
brouglit beneath the English dominion. 



CHAPTER VI, 

Spanish Wars. 

Spanish There were other races, rivals of the English, 
race. j^gg easily to be reduced than the Dutch or the 
Swedes. One upon the southern border bore the flag of 
Spain, rent and dim indeed, but still the flag of a great 
nation. 

Its col- Yet the colony of the Spaniards was far from 
""^- being a great one. St. Augustine, eldest of the 
permanent settlements upon United States soil, was amongst 
the least active of them all. Half garrison, half mission 
in its character, it formed a post where a few troops and a 
few priests kept up the Spanish claim upon Florida. A 
century after its foundation, it was nearly annihilated by 
one of the buccaneering expeditions that were wont to 
ravage the American coast. It rallied, however, especially 
when a treaty between Spain and England put a stop to 
the English commissions with which the buccaneers of the 
time were generally provided, (1670.) 
^ „. . But there was no srood will to speak of between 

Collisions * ^ 

with the Spain and England, or amongst their colonies. A 
"° "' ■ force from Florida was soon marching against the 
newly-organized Carolina, a more flagrant incursion, in 
Spanish eyes, upon the territory still claimed by Spain, 
than any of the northern colonies had made. The expe- 
dition was met and turned back by the resolute CarolinianSji 
(1672.) Some years after, another invasion of the Span- 

(131) 



132 PART II. 1G38-1763. 

iards effected the destruction of a Scotch settlement just 
made near the Spanish border, (1G8G.) These were not 
wars so much as the chastisements intlicted or attempted 
by Florida against its English trespassers. 
,,„' If there was any effect, it was not to dislodge the 

Effect J ^ r> 

on tiie intruders, but rather to stimulate the intruded upon. 
cooiiy. j^iQj.jd.^ lQ^y\^ r^ fresh start. St. Augustine awoke 
from its slumber, brushed up its means' of offence and 
defence, and assumed a new attitude. The surrounding 
country, still in the hands of the Indians, was dotted over 
with forts and chapels, with soldiers and missionaries. On 
the other side of the peninsula, upon the Gulf of Mexico, 
Pensacola was reared with fortress and dwelhngs, (1696.) 
It seemed as if Spain was at last to occupy our soil with a 
colony worthy of bearing her great name. 
War. Presently war broke out between England with 

Attacks Yjxi'ious allies on one side, and on the other 

on St. 

Angus- Spain and France, (1702.) It was but just heard 
chartes- ^^ ^^^ Soutli Carolina, when Governor Moore ob- 
ton. tained the consent of the assembly to an attack upon 
St. Augustine. With twelve hundred men, half of them 
Indians, Moore was able to take the town, but not the fort, 
from which he precipitately retreated on the arrival of 
some Spanish men-of-war from Havana, (1702.) Poorly 
as his expedition turned out, Moore, no longer governor, 
headed a second, composed almost entirely of Indians, with 
whom he made a foray amongst the missionary villages of 
Northern Florida without any effective results, (1705.) 
The next year, a naval attack by both French and Span- 
iards upon Charleston was beaten off with great loss, three 
hundred out of eight hundred assailants being killed or 
captured, (1706.) This was the last event of the war, so 
fur as the colonies were concerned, although peace was not 
made until seven years later by the treaty of Utrecht, 
(1713.) 



SPANISH WARS. 133 

Treaty of T^^is treaty is of moment in United States his- 
utrecht. toiy^ The war, of which it was the conchision, 
arose from the attempt of Louis XIV. to seat a prince of 
his own house upon the Spanish throne ; in other words, to 
combine Spain and France in one vast kingdom. So 
menacing was the attempt to Europe, that not England 
alone, but Holland, Germany, both the Empire and Prus- 
sia, Portugal and Savoy armed themselves against it. 
The treaty of Utrecht decided that France and Spain must 
remain separate. Had they been joined, the Enghsh colo- 
nies upon our shores would have found it difficult to with- 
stand their united foes. 

Second FiYQ years after, France was on the side of Eng- 

^■'^'- land in a war with Spam, (1718.) It was caused 

Descents ^ ^ . 

onFior- principally by the refusal of Spain to fulfil the 
Ida. Utrecht treaty so far as related to the empire of 
Germany, with which power France and England, and 
then Holland, all alhed themselves. Afterwards, Spain 
and the Empire made peace together, while France, Eng- 
land, and Holland formed a league against them, (1725.) 
Little was done either in Europe or in America. Pensa- 
cola was taken and retaken by the French, then in their 
Louisiana settlements, (1719.) It was soon restored, 
(1721.) A force of three hundred, partly Indians, made 
a sally from Carolina upon the Spanish and Indian villages 
of Florida, (1725.) But the war was whhout interest or 
etfect, and peace returned with the treaty of Seville, 
(1729.) 

Ti,i,j Then followed the settlement of Georgia, already 

^""■- described as intended to be an outpost against the 
aiuiFior- Spaniards, (1733.) Whatever they thought of this 
ida. fresh aggression upon their realm, they seem to 
have said or done nothing for some time ; then General 
Oglethorpe, the head of the Georgian colony, was sum- 
12 



134 PART II. 1638-1763. 

moned to evacuate the territory, (1736.) War being 
declared bj England against Spain, chiefly in consequence 
of Spanish depredations upon English commerce, Ogle- 
thorpe received orders to invade Florida, (1739.) He 
did so, with a force of twelve hundred men from both 
the Carolinas and Virginia, as well as from his own prov- 
ince, besides an equal number of Indians. With these, 
and Avith trains and ships, he laid siege to St. Augustine ; 
but being deserted by most of his Indians, and by many 
of his volunteers, he was obliged to abandon the enterprise, 
(1740.) A large expedition from England, reenforced, 
lii*st and last, by upwards of four thousand colonial troops, 
was equally unsuccessful against the Spanish strongholds 
in the West Indies, (1740-41.) But the Spaniards them- 
selves did no better in their invasion of Georgia, from 
which they were repelled, partly by battle and partly by 
fraud, Oglethorpe being still there, (1741.) After this, 
the Spanish war subsided, nor did the French share in the 
hostilities begin for three years to come, (1744.) Four 
years later, the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle restored things 
to their state before the war, (1748.) 

Fourth J'^^st ^'^ t^^^ l^st colonial war with France was 

^^^^- ending, the fourth and last colonial war with Spain 

Cession , ' ^^ . , 

of riur- began. This power came into the contest as the 
Ida. ^ijy Q^ France, in America even more than in 

Europe, the object being to prevent the English expelling 
the French from their American possessions, and then 
turning against the Spaniards, as Avas apprehended, and 
expelling them from -theirs. But the French were already 
driven out; and nothing interfered with a vigorous onset of 
the English upon the S})aniards. New England and New 
York contributed to the capture of Havana in the open- 
ing year of the war, (17G2.) The treaty of Paris, begun 
upon in the same, though not formally completed till the 



SPANISH WARS. 135 

following year, restored Havana to Spain. But it gave 
an immense accession of territory to England and her 
colonies. What France surrendered will ajDpear hereafter. 
Spain ceded Florida, once the whole of North America, 
but now little more than a peninsula of the southern coast, 
(1763.) A royal proclamation of the same year gave 
names and boundaries to East and West Florida, the latter 
province embracing the French cessions east of the Missis- 
sippi. Twenty years after, the Floridas reverted to Spain, 
to be again separated from it at a later jieriod. 

To make some amends to Spain for her losses in 

Spain in . , r t^ i i i • 

Louisiana attcmptuig tlic rcscuc 01 r ranee, the latter kmg- 
andCaii- Jqjjj p;ave up her colony of Louisiana. To this 

foruia. c i 

we shall revert. At nearly the same time that the 
Spaniards took possession of their acquisition in the east, 
they extended their settlements in the west by establishing 
missions at San Diego and Monterey, California, (17G9.) 

But the Spanish wars, so far as our country was 

Character '' 

of tho, concerned, were over. They had never arisen, ex- 
tars!''' cept in the case of the last brief war, from any 
consideration of American interests. Nor had they 
called forth any development of American energies either 
in crowdecf battles or extended campaigns. But they had 
continued, if we date from the first encounters, for nearly 
a century. 



CHAPTER VII. 

French Possessions. 

French TiiE great rival of the English race upon our 
race. g^^ij reappears. It is time to turn back beyond 
Spanish, Dutch, and Indian wars, nay, beyond the growth 
of the English colonies, to trace the progress of the French 
in America. No other nation, it will be found, not even 
the English, asserted claims or projected achievements of 
equal vastness. 

New We left the French the masters of New France 

Frauce. — ^ name of vague extension originally, but subse- 
quently confined, as will be remembered, to Acadie and 
Canada. Acadie being itself shorn of its original dimen- 
sions, the province of Canada remained the chief division 
of New France, 

System '^^^^ Freuch, like the English colonies, were not 
of gov- always under the immediate government of the 
mother country.' An intermediate authority, vested 
in the Company of New France, prevailed for thirty-five 
years, (1C27-62.) For twelve years more, a French West 
India Company was commissioned ,to administer the affairs 
of the colony, (1663-75.) But with tliese bodies were 
associated some officers of royal appointment, so that there 
was no time when the colony was wholly removed from 
the oversight of the sovereign. Nor was the season during 
which the two companies lasted by any means so long or 
so decisive as the periods of the royal government. New 

(136) 



FRENCH POSSESSIONS. 137 

France, like Old France, was essentially a monarchy, and 
a monarchy in which the monarch was growing out of all 
proportion to the people. Its institutions were of the past. 
A governor general, representing the monarch, with an 
intendant for a prime mmister, a council of notables for a 
nobility, and a host of ecclesiastics, with a bishop at their 
head, (from 1G59,) constituted the authorities of the col- 
ony. The ruling class amongst the people was that of the 
seigjieurs, or lords of thv. manor ; their tenants, galled 
habitans, holding land of them by feudal tenure. No 
press was allowed ; no learning of a liberal nature was 
encouraged. The education of the province was in the 
hands of the religious orders, whose names and numbers 
were almost as manifold as in the mother-land. Under 
^^these influences, the colony could not but be greatly re- 
stricted. The main body of the people were necessarily 
dependent, unable to act for themselves or for their country, 
the few alone having the will and the power to urge on the 
work of colonization and of dominion. 

Such were the internal drawbacks upon the prog- 

Relations /. tvt x-i /^n i i • -t ^ ^ 

with III- ress 01 JNew France. (Ji those which we may 
thaiis aud p.jj external, the chief were the relations of the 

English. 

French with the Indians and the English. Those 
with the Indians were of two kinds — with the friendly and 
with the unfriendly tribes. Now it may seem that the 
amicable intercourse of the French with the large propor- 
tion of the natives around them must have been entirely 
conducive to their prosperity. But it did not prove to be 
so, on account, principally, of the tendency of the French 
settlers to sink to the level of their Indian allies, rather 
than to raise these to themselves. The Frenchman, wheth- 
er missionary or soldier, explorer or trader, appeared to 
find a fascination in savage life which he could not resist ; 
and yet it was the vices rather than the virtues •f the 
12 * 



138 PART II. 1638-1763. 

Indian character which he admired and imitated. He 
became indolent, treacherous, morosely cruel, in many in- 
stances far more of a savage than any Indian. As to the 
hostile tribes, it is enough, at the present moment, to name 
the Five Nations, with whom, as will appear hereafter, the 
French were at war for a century. As to the English, it 
must be left to the next chapter to set forth the obstacles 
which they presented to French advancement. It is suffi- 
cient to observe that these hinderances from without, joined 
to those from within, formed a bristling barricade over 
which all the * ardor and all the discipline of the French 
character would find it difficult to mount. The stronwr 

o 

must have been the impulses to have extended the limits of 
New France so far as we shall now find them. 
Acadie '^^^^ boundaries of Acadie stretched from the 

including northern coasts, through all the east of Maine, as far 

as the Kennebec, the French asserted ; as far as the 
Penobscot, the English allowed. With the portions of the 
province in the north we have no further concern than to 
obsferve that they included all now called Nova Scotia, New 
Brunswick, and Cape Breton, together with indefinite re- 
gions beyond. Maine was but feebly held by the French. 
Missions at the mouth of the Penobscot and on the Kenne- 
bec, with a post or two for trade, comprised all that could 
be called settlements. But for the towns and forts of the 
neighboring parts of Acadie, the east as well as the west of 
Maine would have fallen into English hands. 

Passing over the cities and fortresses of Central 
inciuiiing Canada, as foreign to our soil, but not without re- 
New membering their importance, let us pursue the 
Wiscon- Canadian settlements that were made or attempted 
i^an^"''^ upon actual United States territory. The first to 

advance was, as usual, a missionary, Le Moyne, 
who, with a few associates, labored amongst the Five Na- 



FRENCH POSSESSIONS. 139 

tions, then at peace. A colony was founded in "Western 
New York, but only to be abandoned on account of renewed 
warfare between the French and Indians, (1656-58.) A 
few years later, Allouez, another missionary, led the way 
up the lakes, and founded the mission of St. Esprit, on the 
southern shore of Superior, in the present Wisconsin, 
(1666.) Two years after. Dab Ion and Marquette estab- 
lished a mission at Sault Ste. Marie, in the present Michi- 
gan, (1668.) Other missions arose in the adjoining forests 
and on the contiguous shores. After the missionary came 
the trader, and after the trader generally the soldier ; so 
that to the mission house there were added dwellings, bar- 
racks, and, in time, a fort, whoge sounding title frequently 
drowned the peaceful name of the mission. Thus was 
Canada extended beyond the St. Lawrence and its tributa- 
ries, beyond all neighborhood of the English colonies, into 
the valleys and the wildernesses of the west. 
„^ ,^. Still more distant realms were reached. Father 

The Mis- 
sissippi. Marquette, of the Michigan mission, hearing of a 
Illinois. gj,p^|. j.jygr towards the setting sun, resolved to find 
and to explore it. Before he started, his brethren, Allouez 
and Dablon, penetrated into the interior of Wisconsin and 
Illinois, (1672.) Marquette, with a few companions, found 
the Mississippi, as he had been directed by the natives, and 
sailed upon its waters as far down as Arkansas, (1673.) 
On his return, he established a new mission near the present 
Chicago in Illinois. 

The tidings from the Mississippi kindled new 
ouisiana. pj^^j^g ^£ trade, new visions of dominion. To begin 
upon them, there soon appeared a Frenchman, La Salle, — 
in youth a Jesuit, in manhood a trader and an adv(^nturer of 
the highest stamp amongst the colonists of New France. 
Repairing to the French court, he obtained a commission t^ 
complete the discovery of the great western river, in consid- 



140 PART II. 1638-1763. 

eration of which the monopoly of the fur trade was to be his 
OAMi, (1G77.) Ho soon engaged in his enterprise; but four 
years of exertion and of disappointment passed over him, 
before he descended the Mississippi to its mouth and to the 
adjacent coasts. It did not matter that tlie Spaniard De Soto 
had been the discoverer of the river a century and a half be- 
fore the French. They hailed themselves possessors of the 
waters and of the shores, under the name of Louisiana, ( 1 G82.) 
French Tlius was Ncw Fraucc extended from north to 
daminiou. gQuth, and from east to west. While the Swedes 
and the Dutch had yielded their hold upon our soil, while 
the Spaniards had contracted theirs to the single corner of 
Florida, while the English had only their New England, 
New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina, 
the Avhole together forming not much more than a broken 
beach upon the Atlantic, the French dominion stretched 
from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, over vale, and prairie, and 
mountain, far round by the western waters, to the Gulf of 
Mexico. It still needed time, vigor, wisdom, to make this 
mighty empire a reality as well as a name. 
Colony in No time was lost in sending La Salle, who had 
Texas. gone to France to tell his adventurous story, with a 
colony of two hundred, to make a settlement in Louisiana. 
Missing the mouth of the Mississippi, the party were landed 
on what is now the Texan shore, near the present Mata- 
gorda, where they built a fort with the name of St. Louis, 
(1685.) But things went hard with them, and when they 
were reduced to less than a fifth of their original number. 
La Salle found it time to seek relief in Canada. On his 
way thither, with half of his surviving comrades, he was 
foully murdered by one of them, (1687.) The colony of 
St. Louis soon vanished from the earth. 

Twelve years passed before another trial to colonize 
Louisiana. A twofold attempt was then made, one by the 



FRENCH POSSESSIONS. 141 

Colony in ^^S^^^h and One by the French. The old grant of 
Missis- Carolana having been bought up by one of the later 
Bippi. -^g^^, Jersey proprietors, Coxe, he sent, under permis- 
sion of his sovereign, a small squadron to take possession of 
the Mississippi. One of the vessels, sailing up the river, 
was met by a band of Frenchmen, -who, by assuring the 
Englishmen that they were in a part of Canada, and not in 
Louisiana, prevailed upon them to turn about at a bend still 
called the English Turn — Detour aux Anglais. So the 
English retired, and the French held their own. They 
were a party of two hundred in number, under Lemoine 
DTberville, a Canadian of greater gallantry than prudence, 
who, intent upon mines and treasures rather than upon the 
substantial resources of a colony, chose the sands of Biloxi, 
in what is now Mississippi, for the site of his fort, (1G1)9.) 
The next year, an expedition in search of mines travelled 
up the river as far as the Falls of St. Anthony, first visited 
by some of La Salle's companions twenty years before. 
Colony in The mincs receded ; the sands of Biloxi remained. 
Alabama. DTbcrviUe, returning from France, whither he went 
twice in quest of supplies, transferred the main body of the 
settlers to Mobile, in the present Alabama, (1702.) But 
D'Iberville, who, like La Salle, was the life and the soul of 
his company, died, (1706,) and left the colony in a very 
precarious condition. " Nothing," says the French chroni- 
cler, " was more feeble." The truth was, that France was 
at this time too much occupied in Europe, to say nothing 
of the north of America, to rear a great colony in the wil- 
derness of Louisiana. 

Grant to ^t length the province, extending from the mouth 
Ciozat. ^f ^j^g Mississippi to Lake Michigan, and from the 
English Carolina and the Spanish Florida to the New 
Mexico of Spain, was made over, for the term of fifteen 
years, to Antoine Crozat, a French merchant prmce. Ho 



142 PART II. 1638-1763. 

was to receive a large sum every year from the royal treas- 
my towards the expenses of the colonial government, besides 
the monopoly of trade to and from the colony. In return, 
he was to send a certain number of vessels and settlers, 
year by year, in order to keep up and to increase the colo- 
nial settlements, (1712.) A faint flush of vigor seemed to 
overspread the struggling colony. 

Meanwhile the settlements in the north-west had 
settle- l^een extended. The missions of Kaskaskia, (about 
Sna -^^^^'^ ^^^^^ Cahokia, (about 1700,) in our IlHnois, 
and the settlement of Vincennes, in our Indiana, 
(about 1705,) had confirmed the occupation of that region. 
A military post was planted at Detroit, the central point in 
the great arc now formed b}^ the French possessions, (1701.) 
Loss of But we have reached a period when the French 
Acadie. posscssious Were beginning to be contracted. The 
war in the north, to which we must recur, had ended with 
the surrender, according to the treaty of Utrecht, of Acadie 
to England, (1713.) AVhat was thus cut off at the end of 
the line was more than equal, 4n point of population and of 
settlement, to all that had been added to the middle or to 
the lower end. 

Nor was there any reaction to compensate for the 
Pennsyi- l^ss. Canada, it is true, roused hersehj building 
vaniaand f^^ts upon Ncw York territory, at Niagara, (1726,) 
and Crown Point, (1731.) Western Pennsylvania 
was dotted with fortifications, at the same time that others 
were raised through the Ohio valley, (1753.) But the 
most to be gained by these posts was a communication with 
the valley of the Mississippi and with Louisiana, where 
there was little to make the communication of any sensible 
importance. 

Louisiana, soon resigned by Antoine Crozat, had passed 
under the control of the Company of the West, otherwise 



FRENCH POSSESSIONS. 143 

Mississip- known as the Mississippi Company, (1717.) Dur- 
ny:Ttfvv "^S ^^^® fi'cnzy of its speculations, both the colony 
Orieaag. jmd the mother country were inflated, merely to 
collapse with disappointment and disaster. Otherwise, the 
only office rendered by the company to the colony was the 
establishment of its capital at New Orleans, (1718-23.) 
The company soon returned the colony uj^on the royal 
hands, (1730.) 

Our narrative ends with the final outbreak of hos- 
thethir- tilitics bctwccn the i^-ench and the Ji-nghsh ni 
teen of America, (1754.) Forty years had passed since 
the treaty of Utrecht began the rupture of the 
French possessions; but how much was there still left! 
Beyond the limits of the United States the domains of the 
French were far more valuable, within the same limits 
they were far more extensive, than those of England. 
Over and above the colonies and posts that have been men- 
tioned, the first essays were made, at the epoch in question, 
towards the occupation of our Missouri. Counting by the 
states of a later period, we have thirteen of French * to 
match with the thirteen of English parentage. 
Vastness Enough has been said, however, to explain how 
and weak- easily the French possessions were extended by ad- 
venture, and yet how slightly they were either held 
or developed by actual settlement. The French dominion 
was as weak as it was vast. It spread over America like a 
cloud brilliant with the morning sunshine ; but, unsubstan- 
tial as a cloud, it was swept by the breeze and rent asunder 
by the storm. 

* Three of each di\'ision were the same. The French list comprised 
Mam9, New York, and Pennsylvania, with "Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, 
Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Indiana, Ohio, and Missouri. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

French Wars. 

The earliest wars in which the colonies of 
with In- France engaged were those with the Indians, 
dians in 'pijgy ^rg^e also the lonorest. From the time 

the north. *' ° 

when Champlain headed a war party of Algon- 
quins against the Five Nations of New York, (1609,) this 
great confederacy was at war with the French, some inter- 
vals of peace excepted, for more than a century. To 
describe the descents upon the Canadian settlements, the 
wild cries and the wilder deeds of battles, the waste and 
the agony of homes, would be but to repeat our previous 
sketches of Indian warfare. Not until the treaty of 
Utrecht restored peace for a time between France and 
England did the Five Nations, then the allies of the 
English, bury the tomahawk that had so long gleamed 
above the heads of the French, (1713.) 
In the Later wars with Indians broke out in the 

south. south. The Natchez were beaten, (1729-30,) but 
the Chickasaws could not be subdued, (173G-40.) These 
conflicts, however, were of moment chiefly to Louisiana. 
They did not affect the destinies of the French possessions 
generally. 

Strife be- Exccpt the brief contest with the Spaniards of 
tween the Florida, described in the last chapter but one, the 

French -^ , , , , . t-< 

and the French had no wars to conduct agamst any Jj^uro- 
Engiish. pg^jj j,^^g besides the English in America. This, 

(144) 



FRENCH WARS. 145 

it is true, was enough for the French to contend with. 
Enemies for ages past in Europe, these nations turned to 
America in rivalry and contention. It was to outvie each 
other, in a great degree, that they made their settlements ; 
claiming the same lands at the beginning, and extending 
themselves in the same directions as time w^nt on. The 
strife between the two great combatants began at an early 
period, as long ago related, when England, or rather Eng- 
land's colony of Virginia, destroyed the French settlement 
of St. Sauveur, (1613.) Continued by England herself, 
(1G28-30,) war produced no effect; her conquests, as was 
mentioned, being surrendered, (1032.) 
indcci- ^^^^ wars of the next half century were not a 

sive wars, -vvliit morc dccisivc. One, during the English com- 
monwealth, (1652-50,) reduced Acadie for a time beneath 
the sway of England. Another, after the restoration, 
(1000-07,) brought about nothing except a proposal to 
the New England colonies that they should conquer Can- 
ada. Peace restored Acadie, as far as the Penobscot, to 
France, leaving once more no results from the passion and 
the hostility that had been aroused. 

Acts of violence did not cease on either side. 
William's An P^iiglisli trader on Lake Huron was seized, as 
^'"'' a trespasser, by the French, (1087.) At the other 
extremity of New France, the governor of New England, 
Sir Edmund Andros, made an assault upon the trading 
post of a Frenchman on the Penobscot, (1088.) Each 
race was determined to hold, and, if possible, to increase 
its own. A fresh trial of their strength — the fourth in all, 
but the first in which the colonies of either nation took an 
active part — began with the war called King William's 
by the English colonists, (1089.), As far as concerned 
England, then under William III., the chief cause of the 
war was the support given by Louis XIV. to the lately 
13 



146 PART II. 1638-1763. 

dethroned James II. But Louis had excited in one way 
or another the greater part of Europe. England was sup- 
ported by the German Empire, Holland, Spain, and Sa- 
voy. From Europe the strife extended to Asia, as well as 
to America. 

The difference between the contendinc^ parties in 

Its char- ^ ^ ^ 

acterand America soon appeared. On one side was the 
mother country ratheikthan the colony, the strength 
of France rather than the weakness of Canada and Acadie. 
On the other side was the increasing vigor of New Eng- 
land and New York, supported at one time by grants from 
Maryland and Virginia, and thus presenting an array of 
colonies, rather than a single mother-land. Both sides 
were alike in the allies gathered from the forest and the 
prairie ; the Indians of Canada, Acadie, and Maine follow- 
ing the French, while the English were assisted by the 
forays of the Five Nations along the Canadian lines. 
Indeed, the war was more of an Indian than of a Euro- 
pean one in character. It began with the descents of 
French and Indian war parties upon Schenectady in New 
York, Salmon Falls and Casco in New England, (1690.) 
An expedition from Massachusetts against Acadie, and 
another, partly from New England and partly from New 
York, against Canada, were more regular operations, 
(1G90.) The latter scheme was prepared in a convention 
of delegates from Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, 
and New York, held in the last-named colony ; and al- 
though Canada was not invaded, the plans all failing, the 
colonies were united, at least for a season, by new bonds. 
The INFassachusetts force, under Sir William Phips, suc- 
ceeded in ravaging Acadie, and even in seizing the eastern 
part of iMaine, where a fort was presently constructed at 
Pemaquid, (1692 ;) but this was retaken in a few years 
by the French under DTberville, (1696,) the same who 



FRENCH WARS. 147 

appeared in the south at a hiter tune. Peace being made 
between the French and the Five Nations, — wlio were 
really far more formidable enemies than the English, — 
while the Abenakis of Maine still swept the frontiers of 
JS^ew England, a general invasion of the northern colonies 
was planned by the French, (1G96-97.) But the appre- 
hensions of the English were happily relieved by the 
treaty of Ryswick between the mother countries, (1G97.) 
The war, though lasting eight years, had produced no 
sensible effect upon the relative strength of the parties 
engaged in it, nor had it decided any of the differences 
that had led to it, or that would lead to fresh strife in the 
future. 

Kcii-ious ^"^ ^^ these differences has not yet been brought 
differ- Qut as it sliould bc. Between the French and the 

English there existed the wddest and the deepest 
gulf that ever opens between man and man or between 
nation and nation. It was the chasm between opposing 
creeds. Both professed to be Christians ; but the French 
were Catholic, the English Protestant. To the former the 
latter were heretics, the rightful objects of human enmity 
as of divine. To the English Protestant, on the contrary, 
the French Catholic was the minister of a superstition and 
an oppression as hateful to God as to man. It may be 
conceived how much these feelings contributed to whet the 
swords and to blunt the sensibilities of the warriors on 
either side. Sad, indeed, is the grouping of the two nations 
upon the American page, staining it with the passions of 
the old world, the more hateful in the new, because allied 
with the savage and the heathen. 

No marvel, then, that warfare was soon renewed. 
Anno's Four years after the peace of Pyswick, Queen 

Anne's war began, on account, as has been related^ 
of the designs of Louis XIV. upon the Spanish crown^ 



148 PART II. 1638-1763. 

(1702.) In America, the same Lidian alliances were 
formed, the same Indian hostilities were excited, as in the 
preceding contest, except that the Five Nations did not 
take up the hatchet against the French until the war was 
two thirds over, (1709.) There were also the same attacks 
upon the border settlements ; Deeifield (1704) and Haver- 
hill (1708) being both wasted by the French, while the 
French territory about the Penobscot was scoured by the 
English, (1704.) But the war, as a whole, was character- 
ized by greater and more decisive operations. Two expe- 
ditions were directed from Ne\v EngLand against Port 
Royal; the first laying waste the adjoining country, (1707,) 
the second capturing the town ; the very name of which 
disappeared in that of Annapolis, (1710.) The first per- 
manent settlement of the French, it was also the first per- 
manent conquest from them by the English. Two expe- 
ditions, likewise, were planned by New England, New 
York, and New Jersey, against Canada ; the first being 
merely planned, (1709,) and the second, though attempted, 
fluling through the inefficiency of the admiral conducting 
the EngHsh force in aid of the enterprise, (1711.) As in 
the last war, so in this, the northern colonies of England 
were arrayed against France rather than her colonies. 
The En"-lish colonies of the centre were inactive ; those 
of the south were occupied at this period, as must be 
remembered, with Spanish and Indian hostilities. Twelve 
years having passed in warfare, peace was made at Utrecht, 
and France surrendered Acadie to England, (1713.) The 
war was the first of the five between the two nations to 
make any change in their American possessions. 

New points of collision were appearing in the 

rollisioii ^ 

in tho west. As early as the begmnmg of the last war, 
^''^^^" a treaty with meml)ers of the Five Nations was 
made the basis of an Enghsh claim to vast territories. 



FRENCH WARS. l49 

(1701.) To explain the claim on any principles is not 
very easy. It not only made out the Five Nations to be 
the masters of the west, far beyond their own borders, but 
also made out the English king to be the master of the 
Five Nations. A quarter of a century afterwards, a new 
treaty with the same tribes actually transferred to the 
English a portion of tlie country claimed by them, (1726.) 
Meanwhile the pretensions of the English to the entire 
interior, from the coast on which their colonies were 
planted to the Pacific, had never been abandoned. It was 
their right, they alleged, to possess the western, if they 
occupied the eastern shores. To aid the English lulvance 
towards the west, a trading post had been established at 
Oswego. It now became a fort, (1727.) But where it 
stood, and where its range, so to speak, was meant to 
extend, the French claimed the sovereignty. 
And in There were also difficulties, both old and new, 
tho east, arising in the east. The war between the English 
and the Abenakis, in which French missions were assailed, 
and a French missionary was murdered, threatened fresh 
hostilities, (1724.) The French, on their side, exasperated, 
perhaps, by the loss of Acadie, were inclined to infringe 
upon English rights. Acadie, they argued, was only the 
peninsula, or what is now called Nova Scotia. But the 
English replied with reason, that it was not only the penin- 
sula, but the adjoining mainland, and even the surround- 
ing islands. Yet to these the French held fast, especially 
to Cape Breton, where stood their stronghold of Louisburg, 
by far more important in their eyes, and in those of their 
adversaries, than any of the inconsiderable posts upon the 
territory that had been surrendered. 

J,. ^ At length after a third of a century of nominal 

George's peace, war was renewed, (1744.) It was called 
King George's by the English colonists, from 
13* 



150 PART II. 1638-1763. 

George II. His interposition in fjivor of Austria and Sar- 
dinia, then combined against France and Spain with other 
powers, led to a French declaration of war ; Spain, as may 
be recollected, being already at war with England. France 
Avas now under Louis XV. The French being at peace 
with the Five, now the Six Nations, and the Indians within 
the English limits being much diminished in numbers and 
in spirits, the European races fought their battles more by 
themselves. An expedition, proposed by Massachusetts, 
and supported by men from Connecticut, New Hampshire, 
and subsequently Rhode Island, as well as by supplies from 
New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, all under the 
command of William Pepperell, of Maine, and all accom- 
panied by a fleet from England, accomplished the reduction 
of Louisburg in less than two months, (1745.) A still 
more extensive campaign was projected for the following 
year, when New England, New York, New Jersey, Mary- 
land, and Virginia, with a grant from Pennsylvania, and an 
armament from England, were to invade Canada ; but the 
English force did not appear, and rumors of a French 
descent upon New England broke up the colonial ranks, 
(1746.) France did little of any kind. Her troops at 
Crown Point made some incursions into Massachusetts 
and New York, but the meditated invasion of New Eng- 
land was an utter failure. The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle 
closed the w^ar, four years after its outbreak, restoring Cape 
Breton and Louisburg to France, (1748.) 

Peace was soon broken. An attack upon the 
shell iu French at Chignecto, on the Isthmus of Nova 
^'^^'^ Scotia, caused the first blood to be shed, (1750.) 

Scotia. ' ' V / 

Forts rising in various places betokened additional 
conflicts. It was evident that the troubles in the east M^ere 
far from being allayed. 

Nor was the prospect calmer in the west. At the expi* 



FRENCH WARS. 151 

The oiiio ration of the last war, a number of individuals, 
Compauy. partly Englishmen and partly colonists, associated 
as the Ohio Company, obtained a grant of half a million 
of acres on the eastern bank of the Ohio River, (1749.) 
Virginia, whose governor was interested in the enterprise, 
took the lead in the treaties with the Indians and the nego- 
tiations with the French required by the plans of the com- 
pany. But the French were not to be made friends of on 
that ground. They attacked an Indian settlement where 
some English traders had found refuge, and seized them as 
prisoners, (1752.) They then assailed the troops of the 
Ohio Company. A Virginia party, sent to construct a fort 
at the head of the Ohio, was driven back by a French 
force, who completed the fortification, and called it Fort 
Du Quesne, (1753-54.) 

A larger band, already on the march from Vir- 
8hed in gi^^i^ to the disputed territory, was soon engaged in 
Pennsyi- battle witli the French upon Pennsylvanian soil. 
George The first cncounter between detachments from both 
Washing- gj^gg resulted in the defeat of the French ; but 

ton. 

the second, between the main bodies at the Great 
Meadows, ended in the retreat of the Virginians. They had 
been bravely led, their leader being George Washington. 
An envoy of peace to the French before he thus appeared 
as an officer in war, he was the same in character, if not 
in experience, that he showed himself to be in after years. 
He was now but twenty -two. 

The final It was the final struggle that had thus begun on 
struggle, jj^g shores of Nova Scotia and in the forests of 
Pennsylvania. The mother countries came into collision 
in the following year, (1755.) Then the English fleet took 
some French transports off Newfoundland, and followed up 
the attack by scouring the seas. The land forces were 
equally active. One army, partly of colonial and partly 



152 PART II. 1638-1763. 

of English troops, marclied under General Braddock to 
defeat near Fort .Dii Qaesne. Another, exclusively colo- 
nial, first under General Lyman, and then under Sir Wil- 
liam Johnson, with IMohawks in the train, routed the 
French under Baron Dieskau at Lake George, and built 
Fort William Henry. But they made no attempt at the 
reduction of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, against which 
they had originally started on their march. Another colo- 
nial force under the English General Shirley, setting out 
to reduce Fort Niagara, ventured no farther than Oswego. 
The only expedition to succeed was one that even the 
victors might afterwards wish to have failed. Not content 
with forcing the French troops to evacuate their forts on 
the Isthmus of Nova Scotia, which was done by a force 
from Massachusetts, aided by a few hundred English sol- 
diers, the conquerors decided to drive the entire population 
of the territory into exile. Seven thousand miserable 
creatures, separated from their families, and bereft of their 
possessions, were thrown upon the charity of the English 
colonies, where every association, religious and social, 
national and individual, was against them. Thus opened 
the war, (1755.) It was formally declared in the spring 
of the following year, (175G.) 

Like the last of the Spanish wars, wliich broke 

Exteut. . . 

out m connection with this, the last French war 
sprang from American causes, at least to a great degree. 
Actual hostilities occurred in America near six years 
sooner than in Europe. But Europe did not sit looking 
across the seas. She armed herself for her Seven Years' 
War, as it was styled. Prussia was on the side of England, 
Austria on that of France. Russia and Sweden took 
part against Prussia, rather than for England. After 
Spain came in on the French side, Portugal declared in 
favor of the English. Germany was the chief scene of 



FKENCH WARS. 153 

action in Europe. Asia and Africa also furnished battle 
grounds. 

j^^g^^g American operations were for some time yet 

of the more adverse to the English than those already 
"° "' ^' described. Niagara, Crown Point, and Du Quesne 
continued the objects of attack and of defence ; but far 
from being able to take them, the English were unable to 
defend their own posts. The fort at Oswego yielded to the 
Marquis of Montcalm the same year that war was declared, 
(175G.) The next year, (1757,) Montcalm was the mastei* 
of Fort William Henry. Thus, after four campaigns, (1754 
-57,) the English were retiring before the French. Yet 
the resources of the English had been infinitely greater 
than those of their foes. Canada, which bore the brunt of 
war, did not contain more than twenty thousand effective 
troops ; and even these were in danger of becoming ineffec- 
tive by their isolation from the mother country, on which 
the French colonists were ever wont to rely. 

It was not surprising, therefore, that the renewed 
suLse- exertions of England, and above all of her colonies, 
qucnt |3y -^yliich alouc twcuty thousand men were now 

victories. "^^ _ "^ 

raised, should repair the losses of the preceding 
years. Louisburg was the first prize, tlie whole Gulf of 
St. Lawrence behig taken possession of immediately. Fort 
Frontenac, on the northern shore of Ontario, and Fort Du 
Quesne were found deserted. Amongst those who marched 
against the latter fortress, only to see it in ruins, was Wash- 
ington, then at the head of the Virginian forces. There, 
where he had fought his first battles, where he had been 
twice obliged to retreat, once in command and once in 
Braddock's staff, he now made his last appearance in the 
war. His strength Avas reserved for a greater conflict. 
All these acquisitions of the English were made in one 
year, (1758.) The next brought the abandonment of 



154 PART II. 1638-1763. 

Ticonderoga, CroAvn Point, and Niagara, and more mo- 
mentous still, the surrender of Quebec, after the great 
Montcalm's defeat by the troops whom the greater "^olfe 
had led to amazing victory, (1759.) The two years, 
together, decided the war. 

Conciu- -^"^ ^^ continued a year or two to come. An 
sion of attempt of the French to regain Quebec being 

the war. i i -» r i r> 

repulsed, Montreal soon after capitulated to the 
English, who Avere acknowledged conquerors of Canada, 
i(17G0.) All but a few posts in the farther west were 
surrendered to them within the following year, (17G1.) 
Meanwhile operations, previously commenced, were re- 
newed against the French West Indies by an armament 
composed in part of colonial troops ; the islands of the 
Caribbean group being all captured, (1759-02.) There 
w^as no such thing as fighting against reverses like these. 
After twelve years' of actual warfare, the French made 
peace ; the treaty of Paris ceding to England all east of 
the Mississippi save two little islands, St. Pierre and 
Miquelon in the north, and New Orleans in the south ; 
this last, with all west of the same river, being transferred 
to Spain, whose part in the war has been previously 
described, (17G3.) 

,^,j^^ The French colonists were loath to give up the 

inn.ii territory which their mother country had surren- 
dered. Such of the western posts as were not 
not already in possession of the English did not come 
under their new masters for a year or two, (1765.) In- 
d«'ed, it Avns some months after the treaty that a French 
j^nrt}^ under Pierre Laclede established a new settlement 
at St. Louis, in our Missouri, upon the lands ceded to Spain, 
(17GJ.) Several years more passed before the Spaniai-ds 
installed themselves in Western Louisiana, (17G8.) But 
the French nation had played its part as a power on United 



FRENCH WARS. 155 

States territory. Not the less lasting, however, were the 
influences that had arisen from its possessions and its wars 
while they endured. 

The issue of the French wars needs little com- 
and Ens- Hicnt after what has gone before. The English, in 
iLshcom- ^jjgj^. compact colonies, resembled a man in full 
armor, in contending with whom, the French, scat- 
tered over their disjointed settlements, were like a knight 
protected by nothing but fragments of his coat of mail. 
The Englishman, moreover, stood strong in himself, strong 
in his colony even more than in liis mother land ; but the 
Frenchman leaned upon the distant France, with all his 
enterprise a dependent colonist, with all his gallantry a 
submissive subject. So much for the causes and contrasts 
that were at work in America. If we return to Europe, 
we shall find France too much engaged in ambition and in 
battle there to put forth her strength for the defence of 
colonies as languishing in fact as they were magnificent 
in form. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Colonial Develop3ient. 

The English territory was immensely increased 
mentof by tlic successful wars that have been described, 
eiri 01 y. -^^^ ^^^^^^ .^^ Umits extended solely at the expense 
of neighboring domains. Within the boundaries already 
belonging to the colonies of England, there had been a large 
accession to the lands formerly occupied. New fields were 
brouglit into cultivation ; new towns were formed ; new 
means of communication were opened between the old habi- 
tations and the new. 

Of occu- The development of territory arose chiefly from 
pation. ij^Q development of occupation. As ine numbers 
and wants of the colonists multiplied with time, they found 
fresh ways of employing and of enriching themselves. The 
seaboard was lined with merchants and traders ; the interior 
was filled with farmers and planters ; while around them 
all were clustered the artisans and the laborers whose ser- 
vices were needed to complete the circle of toil. Few men, 
or even women, in the early period, were without some 
laborious pursuit ; few, as wealth increased and individuals 
grew to be above the necessity of labor, laid aside industry 
altogether. In one light, the entire people is seen exerting 
itself to improve the soil, to build up the dwelling, to enlarge 
the limits of commerce, of trade, and of maniifacture. How 
successful these exertions were, appears from the steady 
growth of the colonies in resources and in possessions. 

(156) 



COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT. 157 

uriiiibits Tlie habits of the colonists were long of the sim- 
ofiite. plest nature. Little space for liberality or for lux- 
ury could be found in a new land crowded with its ever- 
recurring demands for sobriety and for self-denial. Wher- 
ever men lived, in the little knot of cottages that was called 
a town, in the scattered villages of the country, in the iso- 
lated posts of the frontier, tliey had a narrow life before 
them. Afterwards things changed, and in many a spacious 
enclosure there arose dwellings of greater comfort and of 
greater pretension. As the strict i:ules of the primitive 
l)eriod were loosened, there was also more frequent and 
more genial intercourse amongst men and amongst women. 
Without falling into extravagance, the wealthy found new 
objects of expenditure. Without yielding to idleness, the 
poorer classes found new means of relaxation. The change 
was for the better, physically and mentally. It relieved the 
nerves that had been tightlj^ strung. It enlarged the inter- 
ests tliat had been closely confined. If it did away with 
tlie primitive simplicity, it also did away with the primitive 
ruggedness of life. Time was gained for thought, for cul- 
ture, for expansion. 

Ofeduca- The sourccs of -education had beep opened at an 
tion. early period. The first laws of Massachusetts pro- 
vided for the schoolmaster and the school, each township of 
fifty families being bound to maintain a teacher of reading 
and writing, while each of a hundred famihes was called 
upon to set up a grammar school, (1645-47.) The exam- 
ple was generally imitated throughout New England. 
Some of the central colonies were equally on the alert, 
Pennsylvania, especially, making provision from the first for 
public schools, (1G85-80.) ^Maryland was much later in 
the fieW, proposing schools long before she established them, 
and laying them, when established, under the restriction of 
being taught only by members of the church of England, 
14 



158 PART II. 1638-1763. 

(1723.) The southern colonies were mostly behindhand 
in the matter of education. South Carolina was amongst 
the earliest to organize public schools, (1721;) but these, 
like the schools of almost all the country, were of a very 
limited design. Private instruction being preferred by tlie 
richer colonists, the schools were left to the middle and 
lower classes, whose interest was not strong enough to sup- 
port them. 

The patronage of the upper classes turned to the 
Colleges. ^Qii^ggg which began with Harvard, in Massachu- 
setts. Virginia, after depending upon a Latin school at 
New Amsterdam, bestirred herself to have a seminary of 
her own. At the instance of the Bishop of London's com- 
missary, — the ecclesiastical head of the province, — James 
Blair, the long-sleeping project of a college was revived. 
The aid of the king was invoked ; and he granted a charter, 
with donations in money and lands, to create a corporation, 
whose chief charge it should be to provide instruction for 
such as proposed to take orders in the established church. 
A department was also to be organized for the education of 
Lidians. The royal names of William and Mary, then king 
and queen, were bestowed upon the rising institution, 
(1G91.) Connecticut soon had her Yale College, (1700;) 
New Jersey her College of New Jersey, (1738-46 ;) New 
York her King's College, (1754;) and Pennsylvania her 
Academy, (1750,) afterwards the University of Pennsyl- 
vania. These institutions became the centres of quite an 
amount of intellectual activity. 

Of the The printing press had long been at work. The 

press. iipg^. ^Q |3g gg^ yp ^y^g ^^ Cambridge in Massachu- 
setts, (1639.) But it was under so much restraint that it 
can hardly be said to liave exerted any general influence. 
The importation of books was under similar liinderanccs, 
certain volumes being absolutely prohibited, (1^54.) Not- 



COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT. 159 

withstanding, the trade seemed to flourish, tliere soon being 
as many as four bookstores in Boston, while hbraries were 
gatherhig on a small scale, (1686.) The first newspaper 
of the colonies Avas a diminutive sheet, issued once a week, 
under the title of the Boston News Letter, (1704.) No other 
press kept pace with that of JMassachusetts. The royal 
governor of Virginia, Sir William Berkeley, made it a boast 
that under him " there are no free schools nor printing.'* 
" God keep us'," he profanely added, " from both I " (1671.) 
Not many years after, the owner of a press introduced into 
the colony was bound over to make no use of it until the 
royal pleasure could be consulted. The royal pleasure 
turned out to be, that the press and its proprietor should 
leave Virginia, (1682-83.) 

Official in- The increasing activity of the press is proved by 
teiference. nothing more clearly than the continued interfer- 
ence to which it was subject from the' colonial officials. In 
time, the governors of the royal provinces were regularly 
instructed to allow no printing without their special license, 
(1702.) It was virtually the same in all the colonies. In 
Pennsylvania, a printer was called to account for one of his 
publications in such a way as to suggest a retreat to New 
York, (1692.) Thirty years subsequently, the publisher of 
the Philadelphia Mercury, the only newspaper out of Bos- 
ton, was obliged to apologize for an article displeasing to 
the governor and the council, (1722.) "I'll have no print- 
ing of your address," says Governor Shute of Massachu- 
setts to the House of Representatives, on their remonstrating 
against his proceedings ; " the press is under my control." 
But he did not succeed in preventing the printing, or even 
in bringing the printers to trial, (1719.) It was not because 
the Massachusetts press was free. On the contrary, within 
a very few years, Benjamin Franklin, then a boy of seven- 
teen, was admonished by a joint committee of the council 



160 PART 11. 1633 47G3. 

and the house for certain articles of his in his brother 
James's paper, the New England Courant, James himself 
being thrown into jail for a month in consequence of having 
allowed Ben's animadversions upon " religious hypocrisy," 
(1723.) Cosby, governor of New York, went farther than 
Shute against the freedom of the press. His council, with 
whom he was having a violent dispute, took to a newspa- 
per, the Weekly Journal, of which John Peter Zenger wa3 
the publislier. The governor, although he had his organ in 
the New York Gazette, determined that the council should 
be deprived of theirs, and that Zenger should be punished. 
After an imprisonment of eight months, Zenger was tried 
for libel, and esca})ed condemnation only by the exertions of 
his counsel, Andrew Hamilton, of Pennsylvania. The httle 
sympathy that there was with Zenger on the score of a free 
press may be conceived from the fact that, though acquit- 
ted, he was left to bear the losses of his imprisonment, 
(1732-33.) 

Editions of It was a striking proof of advancing energies 
the Bible. ^1^^^ ^i^p Boston press gave in issuing an edition of 
the Bible, the privilege of printing the English version 
being a monopoly of the Universities of Oxford and Cam- 
bridge. The Boston edition bore the imprint of the king's 
printer in London, (about 1752.) A German Bible had 
been already printed in Germantown, Pennsylvania, (1743.) 
intoiiec- '^^^^ intellectual development of the colonies was 
ifi- altogether of a grave cast. To trace it in action, 



tUill .If 

iiicnt: in ^^'^ ^^'^ obliged to follow the men of the time into 

action. 



circumstances where exertion, anxiety, and devour- 
ing care exclude all lighter aspects. We seldom find the 
graceful mind or the sportive spirit ; it is all solemn delib- 
eration, weighty argument, the natural methods of dealing 
with subjects so serious and relations so momentous as 
those in which the colonists were involved. 



COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT. 161 

111 litcra- Pass from men of action to men of contemplation, 
turo. jjj^(j ^jj^ same signs appear. Tlie primitive writings 
treat of matters of life and death to tlieir authors. AVhether 
it is the chronicler, like Governor Bradford, of Plymouth, 
or the traveller, like John Lederer, in Virginia, each 
wears a soljer countenance and tells a sober story. If we 
penetrate into the mazes of witchcraft literature, as much 
of the early New England writings may be styled, we fmd 
tliat what look to us like the Avildest hallucinations then ap- 
peared the sternest facts. Imagination, it is true, had much 
to do with them ; but it Avas imagination excited to that 
degree in which the unreal seems more true than the real. 
At a later time, the colonial literature assumed lighter 
forms. There were writers of travels, of essays, even of 
poems, to some of which we shall presently advert. But 
the chief men of letters were still of grave mien ; indeed, 
there was hardly one out of the clerical ranks. The influ- 
ence of clergymen upon literature as upon life was very 
sensible for many years beyond the period of which we 
treat. At the head, perhaps, of the colonial writers, was the 
theologian and the metaphysician Jonathan Edwards, a 
native of Connecticut and a minister of Western Massachu- 
setts, wliose treatise on the Liberty of the Will reads like a 
plea for all the gravity of learning as well as for all the 
severity of dogma then vanishing away. 
In sci- Science found its earnest votaries. There was 

euco. Qy^Q^ indeed, whose inquiries were so resolute and so 
brilliant as to throw lustre over the whole country. Benja- 
min Franklin, a student and a writer from his early youth, 
at the same time that he was a hard-working printer, solved 
the mysteries of the thunder cloud, into which, frequently 
as it appeared, science had not then actually penetrated, 
(1752.) Nor Avere his electrical discoveries the only re- 
sults of Ihs scientific attainments. A sometime neighbor of 
14* 



162 PART II. 1638-1763. 

Franklin, John Bartram, of Pennsylvania, whom the great 
Linnaeus called " the first natural botanist in the World," 
was the creator of a botanic garden near Philadelphia, and 
at the same time the explorer of the whole country from 
Canada to Florida, (1751-66.) His son, William Bar- 
tram, continued the work begun by the father, leaving an 
account of his own journeyings as full of freshness as the 
forests and the plains which he explored. Another branch 
of science was nobly cultivated by John Winthrop, a de- 
scendant of the Massachusetts governor, who occupied the 
chair of mathematics and natural philosophy at Harvard 
College. His astronomical observations, continued for many 
years, (1740-70,) enlarged the sphere of knowledge in 
Europe as well as in America. 

Art, even in its loAver forms, was hardly recog- 
nized. The dramatic exhibitions, attempted at a 
late day in Boston, wx^re instantly interrupted by the Puri- 
tan authorities, (1749.) In the towns and colonies more 
tolerant of amusement, there was nothing better than a 
strolling company, which was obliged to wander in turn 
from Newport to Williamsburg, (1752.) The first dramatic 
com[)osition of the country was the Prince of Parthia, 
(1759,) a tragedy by Thomas Godfrey, a native of Phila- 
delphia, whose poetic aspirations were much more success- 
ful than those of his countrymen before him. A few mu- 
sical instruments, a piece or two of ordinary sculpture, a 
larger proportion of paintings, might be found in the more 
refined mansions. The first organ for a church encountered 
so great opposition in Boston that it remained unpacked for 
several months after its arrival from Enghuid, (1713.) 
Thirty years afterwards, an organ of considerable excellrnee 
WM^ constructed in l^oston it-elf by Edward Broiniield, 
(1745.) The musical publications of the period, beginning 
wuth "• The Cantus or Trebles of twenty-eight Psalms," 



COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT. 163 

under the supervision of Rev. Jolin Tufts, of Newbury, 
(1710,) were cliieHy eoiiiined to psahnody. Portrait paini- 
ers -were making their appearance ; tlie first two, Watson 
and Smybei-t, being both from Scotland. John Singleton 
Copley, a native of Boston, and Benjamin West, a native 
of Springfield, in Pennsylvania, gave better promise of the 
art that was yet to walk in beauty through the nation. 
iiifiii'Mi- '^^^^ intellectual progress of the colonies was 
ces from scusibly affcctcd by influences from abroad. Not 
merely that the literature, the science and the art of 
other countries were Avithin the reach of the new people, 
but that they were actually brought to its door, so to speak, 
by sojourners from beyond the sea. An English naturalist, 
Mark Catesby, was a visitor to Virginia and South Caro- 
lina, (1712-22.) A Swedish man of letters, Peter Kalm, 
travelled through all the central colonies, (1748-51.) His 
name still dwells amongst us in the Jcahma, a genus of 
plants embracing our beautiful mountain laurel. A group 
of clerical visitors came at about the same time. George 
Berkeley, afterwards Bishop of Cloyne, spent some years 
(1729-31) at Newport, spreading around him the iniluences 
of a cultivated and a devout spirit. He tarried there on 
the way to the Bermudas, where he hoped in vain to found 
a college for the youth, Indian and English, of America. 
Georgia was visited by the Wesleys, John and Charles, 
(1736-37,) then just entering upon their efforts as reform- 
ers in the English church. George AVhitefield, at first the 
churchman and then the sectary, traversed the whole land 
from north to south ; his appeals to the people resulting in 
revivals, as the phrase went, which were repeated until the 
charm began to lose its power, but not before it had greatly 
loosened the hold of ancient doctrines, (1738-70.) 
Liberality Of all the progress that we have to notice, no 
iu religion, p^mt is more remarkable than the increasing lib- 



164 PART II. 1638-1763. 

erality in religion. It was beginning to be seen that men 
might be fellow-Christians without being fellow-churchmen 
or fellow-Puritans. Dissenters found toleration in the 
church-province of Virginia, (1G98.) On the other hand, 
the Puritan churches made peace with their antagonists. 
Cotton Mather, preaching at the ordination of a Baptist, 
expresses " our dislike of every thing which looked like per- 
secution in the days that have passed over us," (1718.) 
Churchmen in Massachusetts were released from Puritan 
tithes, (1727.) Baptists and Quakers were both released 
from the same tithes in Massachusetts, (1728,) New Hamp- 
shire, (1729,) and Connecticut, (1729,) the last colony, 
howeVer, continuing the restrictions upon separate places of 
worship. Even the Poman Catholics had their crumb of 
toleration. On their celebrating mass in Philadelphia, the 
governor proposed to enforce the penalties of the English, 
not the Pennsylvanian, law against them ; but the council 
opposed the proceeding, on the ground that the Poman 
Catholics were protected in tlie charter of the colony, 
(1734.) The air seems to grow freer as we meet with such 
a record. But it was not yet purified. Charles Carroll, a 
Roman Catholic of Maryland, found himself so hemmed in 
by illiberality, that he petitioned the French government 
for a grant in Louisiana, (1751.) 

Church of The church of England — the moderate church 
England, ^f j^j^g reformation — was the mean, as formerly de- 
scribed, between the extremes of the Roman and the Prot- 
estant sides. But, as the Roman church was hardly repre- 
sented in the colonies, the church of England appeared to 
occupy, not so much a mean as an extreme position, the 
opposite to the extreme of Puritanism. It was, therefore, 
the great foe of Puritanism, just as Puritanism w^as its 
great foe. Both the churchman and the Puritan found it 
hard to bear and to forbear with each other, the more so as 



COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT. 165 

the churcli of England increased, and assumed the lead. 
John Checkley, preparing to be a church missionary, tlirew 
the Puritan clergy of Boston into quite an excitement, by 
taking upon himself to say that there could be " no Chris- 
tian minister without episcopal ordination," (1724.) So, 
when the Massachusetts ministers, headed by Cotton Mather, 
petitioned the General Court that a synod of their churches 
might be convened, as in former days, the church clergy 
appealed to England for the suppression of the proposed 
assembly, (1725.) It was not merely ill will that these 
proceedings kindled; it was apprehension of oppression, 
riojfctof Dissenters generally, but with the Puritans still 
bishops, jj-j ^\^^, y^j-j^ stood ai-rayed against a project in which 
the church of England was deeply interested. As early as 
the reign of Charles II., a l)isliop for Yii-ginia had been 
nominated at the instigation of the prime minister Claivn- 
don, (1G72.) It proved merely a nomination. Thirty 
years passed, when the Society for Pro[)agating the Gospel 
in Foreign Parts (1701) took up the matter, partly in con- 
sequence of applications from the churchmen of tlie colonies, 
(1703.) It was twelve years more before the society, after 
petitions to and answers from Queen Anne, undertook " a 
draught of a bill, proper to be offered to the Parliament, 
for establishing bishops and bishoprics in America," (1715.) 
The queen's death interfering with the execution of these 
projects, they were laid aside, resumed, and then laid aside 
again until some of the English prelates, members of the 
society still, espoused the cause so full of interest to them 
and to their church. Their plan, drawn up by Bishop 
Butler, of Durham, was not one, it would seem, to provoke 
opposition. It suggested the limitation of the ej^iscopal 
power to the clergy in orders, declaring, at the same time, 
that " no bishops are intended to be settled in places where 
the government is in the hands of dissenters, as in New 



166 PART II. 1638-1763. 

England," &c. Such, however, were the difficulties attend- 
ing the scheme, even in' this modified form, that it failed, 
(1750.) Its advocates, joined or succeeded by others, did 
not give up the hope of carrying their point at a future 
time. But the passions of the colonists, as well from politi- 
cal as from religious causes, ran too high to admit of further 
provocation. Nor were dissenters only arrayed against the 
plan of the episcopate. Churchmen were almost equally 
earnest, on account, chiefly, of the jealousy entertained in 
relation to the mother country. So that Avhen, at a later 
time, the Bishop of London's commissary for Virginia 
called a convention of his clergy, to discuss an address to 
the king, " upon an American episcopate," certain clergy- 
men, who protested against the proposal, received the 
thanks of the House of Burgesses for their course, (1771.) 
The clergy of Virginia, however, and the Burgesses had 
long been on poor terms, in consequence of certain acts 
passed by the latter to the detriment of clerical revenues, 
indeed, to the violation of clerical rights, (1755-58.) The 
church of England, it must be confessed, was far from being 
a church of peace in the colonies. 

Classes: The classcs in the colonies remained the same as 
*^^^'^^®^- heretofore. But the relations between them were 
varying with their members and their numbers. Amongst 
the echoes from those distant years we catch the sounds of 
sympathy for the enslaved. Some German, not English, 
Quakers of Pennsylvania began by declaring against the 
whole system of slavery, (1688.) An English Quaker of 
the same colony was stirred to make the same declaration; 
but his remonstrance was mingled with fanaticism and sedi- 
tion, (1692.) A few years later, Pennsylvania pronounced 
against the importation of Indian bondmen, (1705.) Mas- 
sachusetts passed a similar prohibition, (1712.) But when 
Pennsylvania, or a portion of its people, petitioned for 



COLONIAL DEVELOPMENT 167 

the general emancipfition of the slaves in the provtnee, the 
assembly rejected the proposal, (1712.) Tlie slaves did 
not every where sit still while the masters legislated. New 
York M^as thrown into terror by a negro plot to fire the 
city, (1712.) South Carolina vv'as twice threatened by a 
negro massacre, (1730, 17o8.) It was not to be expected, 
with all the advantages or all the alleviations of slavery in 
the Englisli colonies, that the system was to escape the 
dangers and the wrongs to which it had led in every land 
and in every age of its history. One earnest voice was 
lifted up against it in the colonies by John Woolman, of 
New Jersey, a Quaker of singular refinement as well as 
singular simplicity, who published Some Considerations 
on the Keeping of Negroes, towards the close of the pe- 
riod, (1753.) Woolman's Journal of liis life and his devo- 
tions should be mentioned as one of the most attractive 
works in our early literature. 

Colonics: Between colony and colony there were new bands 
union, ^f union. Suggestions of combining them in some 
'common organization had appeared from time to time. 
The first project of the sort, on the part of the colonies, 
was of William Penn's proposal. He urged a congress of 
twenty members, to be elected by the colonial assemblies, 
with a president appointed by the king. This body was to 
keep the peace amongst the colonies, to regulate their com- 
merce, and to secure their defence, (1697.) A quarter of a 
century later, Daniel Coxe, of New Jersey, brought forward 
a plan of much the same nature, (1722.) Thirty years 
later, the deputies of seven colonies — the four of New 
England, New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland — met 
at Albany on the recommendation of the secretary of state 
in England, (1754.) The subjects before this assembly 
were the relations of the colonies with the Indians and with 
one another, referring chiefly to the war then opening 
between England and France. It was to promote the mil- 



168 PART II. 1638-1763. 

itary rather tlian the civil union of the colonies, that Benja- 
min Franklin, a deputy from Pennsylvania, laid his jDro- 
posals before the convention. He suggested a council of 
forty-eight, apportioned to the contributions of each colony, 
who Avere to conduct the affairs of war, and, to a certain 
extent, the affliirs of peace ; the members, cliosen for three 
years, by the colonial assemblies, to elect their own speaker, 
but to be under a president, or governor general, nominated 
by the crown. This system suited neither those who favored 
nor those who opposed the interests of the colonies, the ap- 
pointing power and the veto, with which the president was 
armed, being deemed as unfavorable to colonial liberty as 
the rights of the council were to royal prerogative. It was 
at the same time that the king commanded one of his min- 
isters, the Earl of Halifax, to prepare a plan of colonial 
union. Each colony was to elect, by common consent of 
assembly, council, and governor, a single commissioner to 
a federal body, by which a revenue was to be raised and 
the general defence assured. A commander-in-chief was 
to be placed at the head of the government, which, as we 
see, was a merely military organization. Union was not 
to be achieved by a fluctuating succession of projects like 
these. 

Contrib '^^^® sympathy existing amongst the colonies ap- 
tions to pears on another record than that of systems or 
Boston, assemblies. A great fire, breaking out in Boston, 
caused immense loss and immense distress, (1760.) What 
Boston itself could do was promptly done ; its people were 
not in the habit of giving up, however severe the trial. 
But there came a large sum from New York, another from 
Pennsylvania, besides one from Nova Scotia, and various 
subscriptions from England. The colonial contributions to 
Boston proved that there were bonds, if not yet drawn 
together, still capable of being tightened, closely and last- 
ingly, amongst the colonies. 



CHAPT.ER X. 
The Mother Country. 
As the colonies passed tliroun;h the strnirsles of 

Views . ^ . , ^ . ,.,,,' 

of the intancy into tlie promises ot inanliood, tliey wore a 

mother j^g^y j^j^^|, jj^ ^i,^^ gjorht of the iiiotlier country. Some- 
country. _ ^ •' 

thing more than had been anticipated was to be 

hoped, something more also was to be feared from them. It 
seemed as if they might be able to contribute largely to tlie 
resources of the mother-land ; and yet it seemed as if they 
might think themselves able to witlihold as well as to con- 
tribute. Strange symptoms of insubordination had appeared. 
The crown, the parliament, and the officials by wliich both 
were represented, had been confronted, here and there, witli 
amazing boldness. It was high time, so thought the Englisli 
rulers, to take the colonies in hand, to tighten the reins of 
government, and to confine them to the course marked out, 
as it was thought, by the interests of the mother country. 
Board of Chief of the agencies put in operation was the 
trade. board of trade, consisting of a president and seven 
-roembers, entitled the Lords Commissioners for Trade and 
Plantations, (1G96.) To this body were committed the 
functions hitherto exercised by committees of the privy 
council, but now magnified into large powers of administra- 
tion. It was intrusted with the execution of the navigation 
acts, to which Avere at this time appended fresh and oppres- 
sive provisions of colonial Courts of Admiralty. It was also 
empowered to carry out the new acts by which not merely 
15 (16^) 



170 PART II. 1638-1763. 

the trade but the aclmhiistration of the colonies was to be 
brought under stricter control. The royal approval of all 
colonial governors, and the conformity of all colonial laws 
to the statutes of Parliament, were amongst the hrst steps to 
be taken. The board entered heartily into its mission. It 
proposed the appointment of a captain general with abso- 
lute power to levy and to organize an army without refer- 
ence to any colonial authority, (10'J7.) It laid a prohibition 
upon the exportation of colonial woollens, even from one 
colony to another, (1G08.) It actually Avent so far as to rec- 
ommend the resumption of the charters that remained to 
some of the colonies, (1701.) Time and again, a bill was 
brought into Parhament to declare the charters void ; but, 
for one reason or another, the design was postponed. The 
board of trade, approving itself by its zeal, became a sort of 
ministerial body on being attached to a secretary of state as 
its chief, (1714.) Its course, however, was not improved. 
The secretary longest in office (172-1-48) — the Duke of 
Newcastle — supposed New England to be an island. The 
board of trade acted as if they thought all the colonies a 
broken cluster off the British coast. 

African About the Same time that the board of trade was 
Company, organized, the Ivoyal African Company, previously 
a monopoly, was so enlarged as to allow general participa- 
tion in its operations. What these were appears from its 
name. But the name gives no indication of the near con- 
nection of the company Avith the American colonies, of 
their restiveness, and of its oppressiveness. " Give due 
encouragement," say the royal instructions of Queen Anne 
to the governor of New York and New Jersey, " to mer- 
chants, and, in particular, to the Royal African Companyj^" 
(1702.) ''The slave trade," reechoes Parliament, half a 
century afterwards, in making the trade independent of the 
African Company, " is very advantageous to Great Britain," 



THE MOTHER COUNTRY. 171 

(1750.) It was, in fact, a cardinal point in the treaties of 
England with the European powers. Tlie treaty of Utrecht 
contained a contract on the part of Spain that lier colonies 
should be provided with slaves by Great l^ritain alone, 
(1713.) The treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was followed by a 
convention indemnifying Great Britain, to the amount of a 
hundred tliousand pounds, for relinquishing the monopoly 
of the slave trade with the Spanish colonies, (1750.) The 
closer was the gripe upon the English colonies. Vainly 
did Virginia and South Carolina, for instance, lay a prohib- 
itory duty upon the im[)ortati()n of slaves ; their acts were 
annulled by the royal command. And by what reasoning, 
it will be asked, were the advantages of the traffic upheld 
in the mother country? The answer is simple. In the 
first place, the profits of the African Company and of the 
private slave traders were enormous. In the second place, 
the dependence of the colonists in agriculture, manufacture, 
and trade, as well as in government, was assured, so lon(^ 
as they were kei)t to slave labor. This was openly avowed 
in England ; so that, resist as they would, the colonies were 
at the mercy of the Royal African Company as long as it 
endured. 

Colonial ^^^^ boards and companies of the mother country 
govern- found congcuial instruments in the governors of the 
various colonies. All but those whom the colonists 
were able to elect for themselves, as in Connecticut and 
Rhode Island, may be said, as a general remark, to have 
been the main stays of the policy pursued by the English 
authorities. A needier, greedier set of men was never sent 
forth to rule than the spendthrift courtiers, the broken- 
down officials, and tlie cringing colonists, who successively 
appeared in the scramble after colonial spoils. 

An illustration offers itself in the career of Edward 
Hyde, Lord Cornbury, grandson of the great Earl of Clar- 



172 PART II. 1638-1763. 

Cornbury ^^^^^^^ ^^^^ oousin to Queeii Anne, by whom he was 
in New appointed governor of New York, (1702.) His 
arrival was greeted with dehght by a faction then 
suffering from the reaction consequent upon Leisler's cruel 
fate, ten years before. The party opposed to Leisler and 
his adherents, now getting the upper hand, voted an enthu- 
siastic grant to his lordship the governor, and doubled his 
salary besides. He was not contented ; but, on the vote of 
a large sum, in the ensuing year, for the fortification of the 
Narrows, he appropriated it to himself without leave or 
license. This drove the assembly to insist upon having a 
treasurer of its own — a demand that was afterwards allowed 
by the queen, (170;3.) Cornbury became more and more 
odious to those who had welcomed him with rapturous 
obedience. One assembly after another Avas dissolved for 
not meeting his multi})lied requisitions. Two Presbyterian 
missionaries from England were prosecuted by him on no 
other charge than their creed, but were triumphantly ac- 
quitted by the jury, (1707.) His course was much the 
same in New Jersey, then under the New York governor, 
where, after violent assaults upon the political and religious 
privileges of the colony, he was met face to face in the 
assembly by charges of oppression and corruption, (1707.) 
Such proceedings as Cornbuiy's were too wanton to be tol- 
erated even in England. He Avas recalled, but without any 
other amends besides the recall, for the indignities from 
which New York and Ncav Jersey had suffered during 
seven bitter years, (1709.) 

Burnet Somc ycars pass, and the then governor of New 
and York, Colonel Cosbv, complains to tiie board of 

Belcher ^ ■> i 

in Mass;!- trade of '' the example of the Boston people," 
ci.usetts. (1732.) With his views and with the views of the 
board there was ample motive for complaint. Williani 
Burnet, formerly governor of New York, now of Massa- 



THE MOTHER COUNTRY. 173 

chusetts, liaxl made it a point, from his first entrance upon 
his new government, to obtain a permanent salary, (1728.) 
The House of Representatives would not hear of such a 
thing, much preferring their usual mode of a yearly vot<^. 
This the governor scorned, and hinted at the loss of the 
charter in case he was deiiied his will. A town meeting 
of the Bostonians sustained the house with so much effect 
that Burnet held the next General Court at Salem. Bos- 
ton is the proper place for our sessions, declared the sturdy 
representatives. " Then meet in Cambridge the next time," 
rejoined the governor, (1729.) Burnet dying, one of the 
agents sent to comi)lain of him in England, Jonathan 
Belcher, was appointed his successor. But the colonist was 
soon involved in the same disputes as the Englishman, both, 
in the present case, obeying instructions rather than follow- 
ing their own desires. After a two years' controversy, 
Belcher obtained leave from England to accept a salary for 
the year, (173 1.) Even this was cut off, on his opposing, 
as he was instructed to do, the further issue of paper money, 
already a sore subject in Massachusetts. Belcher wrote to 
tlie board of trade that a crisis was at hand. The house, 
on the other side, wrote to request the king to recall the 
governor's instructions, (1732.) On the king's refusal, the 
agents of the house made the same request to Parliament. 
" This is a high iiTsult," replied that body, " upon his majes- 
ty's government, and tending to shake off the dependency 
of the colonies," (1733.) The House of Representatives 
restored the salaries which it had suspended; but some 
fresh disputes arising, the removal of Belcher was asked 
for and obtained, (1740.) 

Clinton's -A- fcw ycars later, and Governor Clinton of New 
appeal. York, failing to obtain a grant for five years, ap- 
pealed to the secretary at the head of the board of trade 
" to make a good example for all America," (1748.) What 
15* 



174 PART 11. 1G38-17G3. 

his idea was, appeared more clearly when he begged that 
Parliament would impose certain taxes to provide "the 
civil list," (1750.) It was the natural result of the exac- 
tions and the clamors of the previous half century. But 
even before the half century began, Clinton's appeal had 
been anticipated by a scheme of parliamentary taxation, 
brought forward at the time when the board of trade was 
entering upon its career, (169G.) 

Meantime Parliament had not left the adminis- 
nilntaiy tration of the colonies entirely in other hands. It 
interfer- extended the post office of Great Britain to Amer- 
ica, (1710.) It regulated the system of naturaliza- 
tion, until then different in the different colonies, by requir- 
ing a probation of seven years, and an oath of allegiance, 
together with the profession of some form of Protestantism, 
(1740.) It interfered with questions of currency and of 
banking,* in which, indeed, the colonies had got far beyond 
their depth, (1740-51.) 

Commer- -^^^ the wliilc, Parliament maintained its author- 
ciai rule, jjy ovcr the colonial trade. Never, in truth, had it 
gone so far as when it passed what was called the " molasses 
act," laying duties on molasses, sugar, and rum imported 
from any but the British West India Islands, (1733.) " It 
is divesting the colonists," said the agent of New York in 
England, " of their rights as the king's natural born sub- 
jects and Englishmen, in levying subsidies upon them 
against their consent." Parliament was also extending its 
interference with manufactures in the colonies. It crowned 
its acts on this score by prohibiting the exportation of hats, 
(1732,) and the erection of mills for slitting or roUing iron, 
and of furnaces for making steel, (1750.) The commer- 

* It was the way mth most of the colonies, beginning with South 
Carolina, (1712,) to issue bills which were loaned to individuals as a 
borrowed capital. 



THE MOTHER COUNTRY. 175 

cial rule, commenced by the navigation acts of a century 
before, was thus approaching its completion. 
Military Another rule was beginning to appear. The 
rule. wars in which the colonies were involved led to 
their subordination beneath the military and naval com- 
manders of the mother country. It was inevitable that 
the English officers should assume a superiority which 
would be felt, not merely in the field, but in the town — not 
merely amongst the soldiers, but amongst the citizens of 
the colonies. 

ini 5rcss- Wild work was that which Commodore Knowles 
ment at made in undertaking to fill up his fleet by the im- 
pressment of Bostonians. The people seized his 
officers who happened to be on shore, and, retaining them 
as hostages, took such an attitude of fury and of strength, 
that Governor Shirley withdrew to the Castle in the harbor. 
Knowles threatened, the bombardment of the town. Tlie 
upper classes, through their representatives in the house, 
and in a town meeting of their own, abjured all connection 
with " the so-called populace. But they who had risen for 
the sake of saving their brothers and their neighbors from 
outrage, though wholly deserted, were not wholly unsuc- 
cessful. The greater part of the men who had been 
pressed were surrendered by the commodore, and peace 
ensued. Yet there was more parade at the return of the 
governor than at the rescue of the artisans and the sailors 
of the town from their captivity, (1747.) 
A com- Clouds were gathering heavy with menace and 
mander- with ruin. An order went forth from the board 
of the of trade to the colonial governors, directing them 
colonies. ^^ ml&e a fund for the general expenses of the 
colonies, then driving, with the mother country, into the 
fiercest of the wars with France. At the same time, the 
mutiny act, providing for the discipline and the quarters 



176 PART II. 1638-1763. 

of the English army, was extended to the colonies, (1754.) 
The next year (1755) brought over the Earl of Loudoun, 
governor of Virginia, and commander-in-chief of the whole 
thirteen. As the general fund to support his authority did 
not appear, Parliament addressed the colonial assemblies 
with the assertion that " the claim of right in an assembly 
to raise and apply public money by its own act alone is 
derogatory to the crown and to the rights of the people of 
Great Britain," (1757.) Both the property and the free- 
dom of the colonists were thus involved in the establish- 
ment of a military rule. 

Judicial The signs were dark in all directions. Most of 
tenure, ^hc colonial judgcs had long been appointed by the 
crown, or by its representatives the governors ; but once 
appointed, they were independent, as they held office dur- 
ing good behavior. But Chief Justice Pratt, of New 
York, received a commission to continue only " at the 
king's pleasure." In vain he remonstrated with the gov- 
ernor of the province ; in vain the governor supported the 
remonstrance in an appeal to the board of trade. " Your 
good behavior," answered the board, " is a pernicious prop- 
osition." So the secretary at the head of the board main- 
tained, in instructing the colonial governors to issue no 
commissions "• but during pleasure." All this was stranger 
and more threatening than any previous act of the powers 
in England. New York showed its sense of the danger 
by refusing any salary to the chief justice. He, however, 
procured from the board of trade a grant, to be paid out 
of the royal quitrents of the province, (1761-62.) 
Writs of With all the game now in view, the authorities 
assist- still stuck to their " acts of trade." Francis Ber- 
nard, lately governor of New Jersey, and at'present 
of Massachusetts, had but just assured the latter colony of 
the "blessings from their subjection to Great Britain," 



THE MOTHER COUNTRY. 177 

when they were thrown into alarm by an application of 
the custom house officials to the Superior Court for writs 
of assistance, authorizing searcli after merchandise import- 
ed in defiance of the acts of trade. The liearing came on 
before Chief Justice Hutchinson, who was also the lieu- 
tenant governor. All that legal skill, as well as official 
influence, could do to obtain the writs, was done ; but the 
counsel whom the Boston merchants had retained stood out 
to the last — Oxenbridge Thacher, " soft and cool ; " James 
Otis, " a flame of fire." " Every man," says one who was 
present, " of an immense crowded audience appeared to 
me to go away as I did, ready to take up arms against 
writs of assistance." Of course, the writs were granted, 
but they were little used, (17G1.) The same spirit that 
had resisted them broke out against the schemes of taxa- 
tion with which the acts of trade were now connected. 
" Government," argued James Otis, " must not raise taxes 
on the property of the people without the consent of them 
or their deputies." It was not the plea of the politician 
alone. " I do not say," exclaimed the Boston clergyman 
Jonathan Mayhew, " our invaluable rights have been struck 
at; but if they have, they are not wrested from us," 
(1762.) 

English It was amidst these controversies that the French 
dominion, were conquered, and the English dominion rose to 
its height in America. In the north, it extended over the 
three provinces of St. John's, or Newfoundland, Nova 
Scotia, and Quebec, the new name for Canada. In the 
centre, it embraced the thirteen colonies, in wliich had lain 
the germ of its present growth. In the south, it compre- 
hended the two provinces of East and West Florida, 
together with a large portion of the West Indies. So 
vast an empire overtopped all other dominions in the 
western world. 



178 PART II. 1638-1763. 

^ff^^^^ And now, to mark the effects of the victories upon 
on the the victors. First, upon the colonists. They had 
passed through agonizing times, when losses of 
friends and of resources weighed upon almost every house- 
hold, when alternations of grief and of revenge racked 
almost every breast. As a community, hkewise, each 
colony had met. its trials and its reverses. Not\Wthstand 
ing the reimbursements received from England, the colo- 
nies were in debt to the amount of more than ten million 
dollars, one quarter of which stood against Massachusetts 
alone, at the expiration of the last war with France. 
Debts, however, were nothing compared to the diminution 
of the means of paying them, or of gathering new resources. 
The sacrifices of warfare are not to be measured by any 
single schedule ; roll after roll must be inscribed with 
losses, and even then the losses of the future, if they can 
be calculated, remain to be appended. On the other hand, 
the colonists were not without their compensations. They 
had rid themselves of an enemy whose neighborhood had 
been a constant source of peril, both from French and from 
Indian warfare, for a century and a half, (1613-1763.) 
They had proved, their strength in repeated efforts and 
repeated successes. Better still, they had proved their 
union amongst themselves, especially in the final conflict 
AN'hich brought every colony of the thirteen shoulder to 
shoulder. Best of all, they had proved their patriotism, 
their love of their own land, hitherto overpowered by the 
affections that bound them to the other side of the sea, but 
now rising in solemn strength from out the battles and the 
agonies by which they had defended their country, and 
made it the first object of their devotion. 
Upon the ^ext, to trace the effects of victory upon the 
mother mother country. Here we find the marks of sor- 
coun ly. ^^^^ ^^j ^^ calamity, but they are lost in the blaze 



THE MOTHER COUNTRY. 179 

of glory which seemed to have been kindled. " England," 
the king is said to have exclaimed, " never signed such a, 
peace before." The king was George III., then in the 
third year of his reign. The aristocracy, still in power, 
thought with the king. They were dazzled by their suc- 
cess. It made them believe that their sway was irresisti- 
ble, that their colonies were to be ruled, biirdened, and 
crushed as they pleased. Only a few, of keener vision 
and of truer principle, saw that the conquest of the French 
colonies, if resulting in the issues to which it seemed to be 
leading, would entail the loss of the English colonies. 

But for the moment, the En^jlish of England 

Tempo- ' ® ^ 

rary and the English of America were one. The exul- 
^^^ ^' tation of triumph over a common foe, the assurance 
of prosperity under a common king, just risen in his youth 
to the throne, blended with the ties of a common law, a 
common literature, and a common ancestry. New hopes 
for both were appearing in the west. The Indian humbled, 
every race from Europe conquered, the English were the 
undisputed possessors of the far-stretching, the rich-prom- 
isinoj land. 



PART III. 



THE INFANT NATION. 



1763-1797. 



16 (181) 



CHAPTER I. 

Provocations. 

oidtrou ^^^ old troubles between the mother country 
Lies ex- and the colonies remained. They were now ex- 
tended. To enforce the commercial rule of Great 
Britain, her fleet upon the American coast was turned into 
a revenue squadron. To keep up the military rule, the 
colonies were organized in divisions, with British command- 
er-in-chief, British officers, and British troops ; in short, a 
standing army. To maintain the whole system, commercial 
and military, the authorities of the mother country soon 
lent themselves to gi-aver measures. 

The great majority of the British people regard- 
in the ^^ ^^^^ American colonists as countrymen, who could 
mother j^Qt sufFcr without their suffering, or prosper without 

country. , , . 

their prospering. But the majority of the people 
was powerless, or comparatively so. The dommion over 
the mother country, as well as over her colonies, was with 
the aristocracy, with men who, whether liberal or not, 
— according to the phrase, — whether whig or tory, were 
of almost one and the same mind in regarding the colonists 
as their subjects. So thought the king, at this time the 
head of the aristocracy rather than the sovereign of the 
nation. So thought the Parliament, at this time the repre- 
sentative assembly of the aristocracy rather than of the 
nation. So thought the successive ministries, the common 
representatives of the king and of the Parliament, to whom 

(183) 



184 PART III. 1763-1797. 

attached the credit or the discredit of any general course 
or of any particular measure that might be adopted in the 
councils of Great Britain. Thus it was but a portion of 
the nation — and this the smaller, although the more pow- 
erful portion — which was prepared to deal rigorously with 
the colonies. 

Views ^^ *^^ colonies perceived. If they had thanks 

of the to offer for occasional acts of liberality, they gave 
them to the nation, knowing that in any liberal 
measures the nation must be united. But if there were 
complaints to make, if there were outcries of indignation 
and agony to utter, the object of them was not the nation. 
The colonies knew that the nation, as a whole, was on 
their side, and that it was the king, the Parliament, or the 
ministry who alone, as a general rule, deserved reproach. 
Hence the emj^hasis upon the word ministerial in relation 
to .the system upheld in Britain, and opposed in America. 
^ .. The colonies themselves were not a unit. Even 

Parties 

in the the old thirteen, with which we tire concerned, pre- 
sented by no means an unbroken front. The very 
number of their inhabitants — near two millions (1763) 
— implied differences and separations. A considerable 
part consisted of slaves and of servants scattered in vary- 
ing proportions amongst the various colonies. Of the free- 
men themselves, a very considerable proportion was more 
accustomed to subjection than to independence. There 
were certainly many who were wholly unfit to defend their 
liberty, many more who were wholly unfit to raise it to a 
position of security. Happily there was a large and an 
increasing body of men, women, and children, whose na- 
tures and whose principles were of a higher stamp. On 
these the colonic relied as much against the weaknesses 
that were within, as against the oppressions that were 
without. The same class was prominent in the pre- 



PROVOCATIONS. 185 

ceding period ; here, more than ever, is it in the fore- 
ground. 

The two Thus, then, in the story of the provocations divid- 
sides. ing the mother country an5 tjie colonies, we have 
not England, not Great Britain, pitted against America, 
but the rulmg class in the mother country opposed to the 
better class in the colonies. The distinction is important. 
Nothing else could explain the amount of blundering on 
one side, or the amount of wisdom, comparatively speaking, 
on the other. Nor could any thing else so clearly indicate 
the diiFerence between the principles at stake — the princi- 
ples of an old aristocracy on the one hand, and on the 
other those of a young commonalty, all fervent with vigor 
and with hope. 
,^. . , . The ministers representing the British side may 

Ministries r o J 

of the be noted in this place. The Earl of Bute, prime 
''^"" * minister at the beginning of the period, (1763,) 
was succeeded by George Grenville in the same year; 
then by the Marquis of Rockingham, (1765;) then by 
William Pitt, made Earl of Chatham, (1766;) then by the 
Duke of Grafton, (1768;) and then by Lord North, 
(1770!) The Rockingham and Chatham ministries alone 
were comparatively liberal, not even these bemg liberal 
in the true sense of the term. 

p^.^^ England was laboring under the increased debts 

oftaxa- occasioned by the late war with France. It was 
not her part, argued the aristocracy, to bear them 
alone ; they had been incurred, in a great degree, on ac- 
count of the colonies, and the colonies should bear their 
share. The argument proceeded upon a strange forgetful- 
ness of the fact that the colonies were already bearing 
their share, and more than their share, of debts and diffi- 
culties in consequence of the war. Not the less deter- 
mined to increase the burdens of America, the authorities 
16* 



186 PART III. 1763-1797. 

in England cast about for the means of accomplishing their 
purpose. There was but one, and tliis taxation. Now, 
taxation of a certain sort was nothing new to the colonies. 
They had long borne with taxes for the so-called regulation 
of trade. But the ministry and their supporters, not con- 
tent with the old taxes, were for raising new ones — taxes 
for revenue as well as for regulation of trade. Substantial- 
ly, there was no difference ; taxes were taxes, whether laid 
upon imports or upon any thing else ; but the colonies 
were persuaded at the time, and for some time after, that 
there was a difference, and a vital one. 
Discus- When, therefore. Parliament voted, in the begin- 
sion. ning of the year, (1764,) that it had "a right to 
tax the colonies," implying in any way whatever, the colo- 
nies took alarm. The Massachusetts House of Represen- 
tatives ordered a committee of correspondence with the 
other colonies. James Otis, in a pamphlet on the Rights 
of the British Colonies, exclaimed, " that by this [the 
British] constitution, every man in the dominions is a free 
man ; that no part of his majesty's dominions can be taxed 
without their consent." " The book," said Lord Mansfield, 
chief justice of the King's Bench, " is full of wildness." 
But it did not satisfy many of the colonists, and wilder 
still, as the chief justice would have said, became their 
assertions of independence. It was not long before the 
right of Parliament to lay any taxes whatsoever was 
discussed and denied. 

Sugar ^^^^ ^^^ t^^® moment, the colonies were willing to 

^^^- bear with taxation under one name, provided it was 

not levied under another. The ministry, however, adopted 
the ^^ery style which the colonies disliked, and passed an 
act laying duties upon sugar and other articles of colonial 
import, with the expressed understanding that " it is just and 
necessary that a revenue be raised in America for defray- 






PROVOCATIONS. 187 

ing the expenses of defending, protecting, and securing the 
same." Li other words, both the commercial and the mih- 
tary sway over the colonies was to be supported and carried 
out by a course of taxation. Thus decided George Gren- 
ville and his party by the sugar act of 17G4. It was a 
momentous decision. 

stamp The earnest remonstrances of the colonies, es- 

^c*- pecially of New York and Rhode Island, produced 
no effect, except to precipitate measures in England. Ten 
months after the sugar act, a series of acts far more deci- 
sive was passed. A stamp act, proposed some time before, 
was enacted without any other serious opposition than that 
of English merchants in the American trade. By this act, 
all business papers and certificates, as well as newspapers, 
required a stamp, similar to that already used in Great 
Britain. At the same time, the jurisdiction of the Admi- 
ralty Court was extended, to the exclusion, therefore, of 
juries in many cases previously brought before them. 
Together with these new burdens upon the colonies, an 
old one was revived in the quartering act, by which 
quarters and various supplies were demanded from the 
colonies for the British troops amongst them. But neither 
the provisions for the troops nor those for the admiralty 
had any significance to be compared with the stamp duties, 
so unwonted and so unbearable, (1765.) 
jiggist. They roused the colonies with a general start, 

ance. « Xhis unconstitutional method of taxation," was 
the comment of George Washington, who, for the last six 
years, had been a burgess of Virginia. " That parliamen- 
tary procedure," was the subsequent language of Jonathan 
Mayhew, of Boston, "which threatened us and our pos- 
terity with perpetual bondage and slavery." Virginia was 
the first to speak out, as a colony, in resolutions proposed 
by Patrick Henry. " Those Virginians," responded Oxen- 



Coagr-" ^ 



18B PART III. 1763-1797. 

• 
bridge Thaclier, of Massachusetts, the associate of Otis in 
opposing the writs of assistance, — " those Virginians are 
men." The response of Massachusetts, as a colony, was 
the vote of her representatives, on the proposal of James 
Otis, that the colonies should be invited to send committees 
of their representatives or burgesses to meet at New York. 
South Carolina, led by Christopher Gadsden, was the first 
to appoint a committee to the proposed assembly. 

The first congress of the colonies met on the 
7th of October, 1765. South Carolina, 'Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and 
Maryland sent committees of their respective assemblies, 
according to the original plan ; the committees of New 
York, New Jersey, and Delaware being otherwise appoint- 
ed. New Hampshire and Georgia, without sending com- 
mittees, promised to adhere to the decisions of the congress. 
Virginia and North Carolina were absent and silent, \mt 
not from want of sympathy. Timothy Ruggles, of Massa- 
chusetts, an officer in the late war with France, was chosen 
president ; amongst the members were James Otis and 
Christopher Gadsden, the two prime movers in the creation 
of the congress. Otis, like the other Massachusetts mem- 
bers, came instructed by the House of Representatives " to 
insist upon an exclusive right in the colony to all acts of 
taxation." This instruction sounds like the key note of 
the congress." 

Deciara- -^^^ Other doings of the body, whether petition 
tion of to king or addresses to Lords and Commons of 

rights Vi . . . , . .... 

and liber- Great Britam, smk into comparative insignificance 
**®^' by the side of a declaration of rights and liberties. 
This document, acknowledging the allegiance due by the 
colonies to the crown, dAvells with peculiar emphasis upon 
their claim " to all the inherent rights and liberties of 
natural born subjects within the kingdom of Great Britain." 



PROVOCATIONS. * 189 

The rights especially demanded by the colonies are tliose 
of taxation by their own assemblies, and of trial by their 
own juries ; the two, as will be remembered, assailed by 
the stamp act. The injustice and impolicy of the recent 
proceedings in the mother country are pointed out, with an 
earnest demand that all the obnoxious statutes should be at 
once repealed. The importance of the declaration must be 
evident. Preferring no claim to independence, it preferred 
claims to privileges which, in the existing relations between 
the colonies and the mother country, could not be secured 
without independence. The Declaration of Rights, dated 
the 19th of October, 17Co, foretells the birth of the new 
nation as near at hand.* 



* With the exception of a few lines in the preamble, here follo\Ys in 
full the 

DECLARATION OF RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES. 

The members of this congress esteem it our indispensable duty to make 
the following declaration of our humble opinion respecting the most 
essential rights and liberties of the colonists, and of the grievances under 
wliich they labor by reason of several late acts of Parliament. 

I. That his majesty's subjects in these colofiics owe the same alle- 
giance to the crown of Great Britain that is owing from his subjects born 
within the realm, and all due subordination to that august body, tlie 
Parliament of Great Britain. 

II. That his majesty's liege subjects in these colonies are entitled to 
all the inherent rights and liberties of his natural born subjects within 
the kingdom of Great Britain. 

III. That it is inseparably essential to the freedom of a people, and 
the undoubted right of Englishmen, that no taxes be imposed on them 
but with their own consent, given personally or by their representatives. 

IV. That the people of these colonies are not, and, from their local 
circumstances, cannot be represented in the House of Commons in Great 
Britain. 

V. That the only representatives of the people of these colonies are 
persons chosen therein by themselves, and that no taxes ever have been 
or can be constitutionally imposed on them but by their respective legis- 
latures. 

VI. That all supplies to the crown being free gifts of the people, it is 



190 PART III. 1763-1797. 

j,^^^^ The declaration was not made by every colony. 

But though signed by the rei^resentatives of only 
six colonies,* it was virtually the act of all but two, Vir- 
ginia and North CaroUna ; and as such, it went forth to 
convince the mother country, nay, the colonies themselves, 



unreasonable and inconsistent with the principles and spirit of the British 
constitution for the people of Great Britain to grant to his majesty the 
property of the colonists. 

VII. That trial by jury is the inherent and invaluable right of every 
British subject in these colonies. 

YIII. That the late act of Parliament entitled •' An act for granting 
and applying certain stamp duties and other duties in the British colonies 
and plantations in America," &c., by imposing taxes on the inhabitants 
of these colonies, and the said act, and several other acts, by extending 
the jurisdiction of the Courts of Admiralty beyond its ancient limits, have 
a manifest tendency to subvert the rights and liberties of the colonists. 

IX. That the duties imposed by several late acts of Parliament, from 
the peculiar circumstances of these colonies, will be extremely burden- 
some and grievous, and, from the scarcity of specie, the payment of them 
absolutely impracticable. 

X. That as the profits of the trade of these colonies ultimately centre 
in Great Britain, to pay for the manufactures which they are obliged to 
take from thence, they eventually contribute very largely to all supplies 
granted there to the crown. 

XI. That the restrictions imposed by several late acts of Parliament 
on the trade of these colonies will render them unable to purchase the 
manufactures of Great Britain. 

XII. That the increase, prosperity, and happiness of these colonies 
depend on the full and free enjoyments of their rights and liberties, and an 
intercourse with Great Britain mutually affectionate and advantageous. 

XIII. That it is the right of the British subjects in these colonies to 
petition the king or either House of Parliament. 

Lastly. That it is the indispensable duty of these colonies, to the best 
of sovereigns, to the mother country, and to themselves, to endeavor by a 
loyal and dutiful address to his majesty, and humble applications to both 
Houses of Parliament, to procure the repeal of the act for granting and 
applying certain stamp duties, of all clauses of any other acts of Parlia- 
ment whereby the jurisdiction of the admiralty is extended as aforesaid, 
and of the other late acts for the restriction of American commerce. 

* INIassachnsetts, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, 
and Delaware. « 



PROVOCATIONS 

that they were no longer separate settlements, but a single 
country. So bold was the whole course of the congress, so 
starthng the effect, in English eyes, that the Lord Chancel- 
lor Northington exclaimed, " I declare as a lawyer, they 
have forfeited all their charters." It was all done in a 
three weeks' session. 

Thus far the colonies appear to have met their 
Idiots. . . , „ , 

provocations with all the composure oi men who 

knew the right to be upon their side. But it was not 
always so. When one of the New Jersey representatives, 
M'ho had declined signing the acts of the congress, returned 
home, he was hanged and burned in effigy by his constituents. 
The mob spirit had shown itself, months before, in Boston 
and in Providence, where effigies were paraded and houses 
sacked amidst violence the most abhorrent to all the better 
class of the townspeople. When the stamp act went into 
operation, just after the close of the congress, a great riot 
brok(3 out in New York, although there, as elsewhere, not a 
stamp officer remained to execute the provisions of the act. 
It is wiser to pass by such things A\4th regret than to pause 
over their details as if they were the deeds of heroes. 
They sprang from strong feelings, we must allow, but not 
from strong principles ; and so far from aiding the colonies 
in obtaining justice, did more than any thing besides to in- 
crease the oppressiveness of the mother country. Bitterly, 
therefore, Avere they deplored by men like those who met 
in the congress or approved its acts of magnanimity. But 
such is ever the effect of oppression. It overturns the 
reason of the feeble ; it overthrows the influence of the 
strong. 

^. . The outbreak in New York led to one result of 

portation value. An agreement to suspend importations from 
consump- Grreat Britain was fortified by the resolution to en- 
tion. courage manufactures at home, even by such means 



TART III. 1763-1797. 
190 

-s eating no lamb or mutton, so that there might be wool 
enough for the country. All this being communicated by a 
committee of correspondence to the other colonies, there 
ensued a general, though not a universal, abstinence from 
British goods. Non-importation and non-consumption be- 
came the watchwords of the colonies ; and though broken 
again and again, they were again and again renewed during 
the ensuing years. The great change that resulted in the 
outward looks of society harmonized with the transforma- 
tion of feelings which was going on every where. 
Repeal Meanwhile the want of stamp officers, and the 

of stamp indisposition of the colonial authorities to enforce 
the stamp act by themselves, had left it in a lifeless 
condition. Demands that it should be put out of existence 
altogether came, not from the colonies alone, but from a 
large number of merchants in England. Pitt and Burke, 
the greatest of English statesmen at the time, took up the 
opposition ; and as the act had but augmented the expendi- 
tures of the kingdom without increasing its revenues,* the 
ministry, then professing to be a liberal one, listened to the 
general clamor for repeal. Amidst the throngs of trades- 
men and merchants, politicians and statesmen, discussing 
the question, we see the colonial agents all alive to the 
interests with which they were charged. Foremost stood 
Benjamin Franklin, for several years f the agent of Penn- 
sylvania, and now called before the House of Commons, 
where he assured his questioners that the colonies would 
never submit to the stamp act,- nor to any similar statute, 
however much they might yield upon the point of duties 
to regulate commerce. The repeal was carried, accom- 

* It had cost the treasury £12,000, of which but little more than a 
twelfth part was returned from duties levied in Newfoundland, Nova 
Scotia, Quebec, Florida, and the West Indies. 

t Since 1767, but with an interval. 



PROVOCATIONS. ^^ 

panied, however, by a declaratory act, " for the belter 
secunng the dependency of his majesty's dominions in 
America upon the crown and Parhament of Great Britain 
in all cases whatsoever." This was the answer of England 
to the congress of America ; the stamp act was laid aside ; 
but the power of taxation was more tightly grasped than 
ever. 

American It was uow the spHug of 1766. And never had 
rejoicmgs. ^jj^j^j. ggasou been so full of bloom as in the gladness 
which it now brought to the colonies. The fact that their 
rejoicings over the repeal of the stamp act were unmingled 
with any apparent misgivings as to the purpose of the de- 
claratory act, shows the warmth of their attachment to the 
mother country. Statues to Pitt and to 'the king, with in- 
demnities to those who had suffered from the riots of the pre- 
ceding year, were voted amidst a turbulence of congratula- 
tion sLicli as no event had ever occasioned in America. 

Forebodings returned with the following year. 
"" The Parliament of 1767 created a board of revenue 
commissioners for America; passed a tea act, by which 
duties were imposed upon tea and other imports into the 
colonies, for the purpose not only of providing for troops as 
before, but of securing fixed salaries for the royal governors 
and the royal jndges ; then pronounced the New York 
assembly incapable of legislation until the quartering act 
of 1765 was obeyed by that body, hitherto resisting its exe- 
cution. Here were tliree measures more comprehensive 
and more oppressive than any parliamentary legislation had 
as yet been. 

j^^^.^^_ They were met as might have been expected. 

ance " Let US complaiu to our parent," wrote John Dick- 
^°'""* inson, a native of Maryland, and a representative of 
Pennsylvania, in liis Letters from a Farmer, " but let our 
complaints speak at the same tune the language of afliiction 
17 



1904 PART III. 1763-1797. 

and veneration," (1767.) The beginning of the next year 
(1768) brought out the sterner voice of Massachusetts 
througli lier representatives, inveighing against all the enact- 
ments of Parliament, and calling upon the colonies to join 
in one firm front of resistance. This measure the next 
house was called upon to rescind, and by no less an autlior- 
ity than that of the ministry ; but in vain. The same spirit 
showed itself in all classes. The students of Plarvard Col- 
lege declared the proceedings of their tutors unconstitu- 
tional, and called a tree by the name of Liberty. The 
Boston Cadets — a volunteer guard of the governor — re- 
fused to appear if the revenue commissioners, who had their 
head quarters at Boston, were invited to join a procession. 
The commissioners were soon Hying from a riot occasioned 
by tlie seizure of John Hancock's sloop for a fraudulent 
entry at the custom house. Such was the prevailing con- 
fusion, that British troops were ordered to the town, (1768.) 
This was too much for Boston. A town meeting 
ciKisetts called upon the governor to convene the Creneral 
enliven- Cgurt. Ou liis rcfusal, the meetina; advised the 

tion. ^ ' => 

people to get their arms ready, on account, it was 
said, " of an approaching war with France ; " then summoned 
a convention from all Massachusetts. This gathered, and 
again requested the governor to summon the legislature. 
He again refused, and hinted at treason in the convention, 
with reason, indeed, considering the entire novelty of such 
a body to him and to the colony. The convention, not very 
full of lire, deprecated the displeasure of the governor, and 
addressed a petition to the king. Just as the convention 
was separating, the troops arrived, but without finding the 
quarters that were demanded for them from Boston, sturdier 
as a town than Massachusetts as a colony. " O my coun- 
trymen!" exclaimed Josiah Quincy, Jr., one of the truest- 
hearted }oung men of Boston j " what will our children say 



PROVOCATIONS. 195 

when they read the history of these times, should they find 
we tamely gave away, without one noble struggle, the most 
invaluable of earthly blessings?" This was no appeal to 
violence. "To banish folly and luxury," continued the 
Christian patriot, "correct vice and immorality, and stand 
immovable in the freedom in which we are free indeed, is 
eminently the duty of each individual at this day," (1768.) 
The new year (1769) began with a new provoca- 

Act con- . . , , p ,. . , ,, 

cernin<- tiou, m the shapc 01 an act directmg that all cases 
trials in Qf ti^eason, whether occurring in the colonies or not, 

Eu-land. '. ^ ^ . ' 

should be tried in the mother country. This was 
worse than any taxation, worse than any extension of ad- 
miralty courts, any demand for quarters, any creation of 
revenue commissioners, any suspension of assemblies ; it 
struck a blow at the safety of the person as well as the free- 
dom of the subject. The planter at Mount Vernon, hitherto 
calm, exclaims with indignation that "our lordly masters in 
Great Britain will be satisfied with nothing less than the 
deprivation of American freedom." " That no man," he 
writes, " should scruple or hesitate a moment to use arms in 
defence of so valuable a blessing, is clearly my opinion. 
Yet arms, I would beg leave to add, should be the last re- 
source." The Virginia assembly, of which Washington 
Avas still a member, passed resolutions of kindred spirit. 
Massachusetts was more than ready to follow. The Suffolk 
grand jury indicted the governor of Massachusetts, the 
commander-in-chief of the colonies in general, with the rev- 
enue commissioners and officers of the customs, for libelling 
the province to the ministry. Joseph Hawley, representa- 
tive from Northampton, declared in the house that he knew 
not " how Parliament could have acquired a right of legis- 
lation over tha colonies." Thus for every fresh provoca- 
tion was there a fresh resistance, denying more and more 
of the power that was more and more oppressive. 



196 PART III. 1763-1797. 

Colonial The New York assembly now made its submis- 
divisions. gjQj^ ^Q |.|-jg quartering act. In doing so it gave 
great offence to many of the people, one of whom was 
thrown into prison for his violent denunciation of the assem- 
bly. Neither he nor the assembly showed much wisdom in 
thus contending at a time when union was so much required. 
But there were parties amongst the colonists, just as there 
had been, indeed, from the beginning, but now more distinctly 
marked and more widely separated. No less than five 
divisions existed, the central and the most substantial beinji: 
that of the class already mentioned as chief in the colonies. 
This was flanked, on one side, by two orders more or less 
inclined to submit to the mother country, and on the other 
side by two orders more or less inclined to defy the mother 
country. To begin Avith the royalists, their name explain- 
ing itself; then came the neutrals, as they may be styled, 
neither precisely royalist nor precisely colonist; next the 
colonists proper, in their close and resolute ranks — the men 
on whom the issue depended more than on any others ; and 
after them the more excited parties, first of the Sons of Lib- 
erty, as they called themselves,* and second of the rioters. 
Thus, with royalists and neutrals on one Aving, and with 
Sons of Liberty and rioters on the other, the main body of 
the colonists had but a weary and an anxious march. 
Boston The difficulties of the case Avere nowhere more 

nias.sacre. j^ppareut than in Boston. A constant tendency to 
riot on the part of a portion of the townspeople required as 
much energy on the part of the better class as any provoca- 
tions from abroad against which they were contending. 
While the Aviser Bostonians Avere endeavoring to procure 

* From the words of Barre's famous speech of 1765. Many of the 
orisjjinal Sons of Liberty were of the class described as the better one of 
the time ; but, at the present period, the order was made up of tlie more 
turbulent spirits, yet not the most turbulent of all. 



PROVOCATIONS. 197 

the withdrawal of the troops quartered amongst them, a 
party of men and boys involved themselves in a quarrel 
with the soldiers, tJie end of which was blood. This Boston 
Massacre, as it was called, did but add to the burden of the 
moderate and the effective citizens. The soldiers who had 
fired upon the people required to be defended upon a charge 
of murder ; the authorities in England required to be con- 
vinced that the violence of the populace was as much de- 
plored as the musketry of the soldiery. It marks the 
increasing passions of the times, that the two advocates 
retained by the English officer in command on the night of 
the affray, though they were no less tried patriots than 
John Adams and Josiah Quincy, Jr., should have fallen 
under censure for undertaking the defence. Happily for 
the fame of Boston, they secured the safety of the accused, 
only two out of nine being brought in guilty, and those of 
manslaughter alone, for which the^ were branded in the 
hand and then discharged, (1770.) 

^j^^^. Boston was not alone in these disturbances. North 

disturb- Carolina saw a large portion of her interior settlers 
banded together as Regulators * against the colonial 
government ; nor were they brought to reason without a 
battle, in which they were defeated by a volunteer force 
from the orderly portion of the colony, (1771.) In the 
north, again, the burning of storehouses at Portsmouth, and 
the destruction of the revenue schooner Gaspe in Narra- 
ganset Bay, kept up the flames of rashness and of outrage, 
(1772.) The Gaspe, or its officers, however, had done all 
that was possible to provoke its doom. 

The mother country had been pursuing a comparatively 
gentle course. The repeal of the duty upon many arti- 

* A name first applied in South Carolina to a party undertaking to 
execute the laws for themselves ; in modern phrase, Lynch-law men. 

17* " 



cles imported into the colonies showed a disposition 
aiact'con-to^^'^ciHate, (1770.) Two years pa^^sed before any 
cerning r^^.^ aijpcared in relation to the colonies ; nor could 

trials. 

that then enacted be called a provocation. In con- 
sequence of the occurrence at Portsmouth, a bill passed 
Parliament to secure the trial in England of any incendia- 
ries of the royal stores or ships in America, (1772.) It did 
not please the colonists, not even the great party of modera- 
tion, to think that they had brought this sentence upon 
themselves. The trufli was, that the less moderate the 
course of things, the fewer moderate men there were to 
bring things back to moderation. What was done only by 
the violent wq^ upheld in many instances by the prudent ; a 
common sympathy was fast fusing all parties. So Boston 
now held its town meeting, and put forth its memorial not 
only against the acts of which it had to complain, but 
against those which it seemed to have to apprehend. 
Tea de- ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ showed how fast the colonies were 
stroyed in driving on. It began with resolutions from Vir- 
ginia, where a committee was appointed to corre- 
spond with the other colonies. To the closer union thus pro- 
posed, Rhode Island was the first to adhere, but without 
immediate results. Yet, as the year advanced, the colo- 
nists found themselves the better prepared to combine in 
resistance to the introduction of large quantities of tea, still 
subject to duty. It was the plan partly of the East India 
Company and partly of the ministry ; the former hoping to 
dispose of their swollen stock, the latter to obtain some of 
the taxes that appeared to have been levied in vain upon 
the colonies. Philadelphia was the first to take the field by 
town meeting against tea and taxation. Boston soon fol- 
lowed ; and when the proceedings of town meetings, both 
ordinary and extraordinary, came to nought, as the governor 
stood fast for the East India Company and the ministry, 



PROVOCATIONS. 199 

the three vessels that had come in with tea were boarded, 
and their cargoes thrown into the dock. It was a sad event 
lor many even of the more resolute citizens ; but the ma- 
jority, under the lead of Samuel Adams, was now composed 
of the rash as well as the resolute ; a party from the country 
having been most active in the destruction of the tea, (De- 
cember, 1773.) A few weeks later, a smaller quantity of 
tea, imported to private order, was also destroyed at Boston, 
(February, 1774.) 

And else- ^he Same thing happened at New York and An- 
where. napoHs. But the larger portion of the tea received 
at New York, and all received at Philadelphia, was swiftly 
returned to England. This returning the tea, or the stor- 
ing it where it would soon lose its virtue, as in Charleston, 
was a far wiser course than destroying it. The process of 
destruction was also the less bold. It was effected by men 
disguised, or else so maddened as to scorn disguise. 
Slave . It has already appeared how small a part of the 
trade. provocatious to the colonies consisted in mere meas- 
ures of taxation. A signal instance of the comprehensive 
inflictions from the mother country came up in the midst of 
the transactions lately occurred. The repugnance of the 
colonies to the slave trade, reviving in these times of strug- 
gle, brought out renewed expressions of opposition and 
abhorrence. Virginia attempted by her assembly to lay 
restrictions on the traffic ; but the royal governor was at 
once directed by the authorities at home to consent to no 
laws affecting the interests of the slave dealers, (1770.) 
The efforts of other colonies met with similar obstacles. 
Bills of assemblies, petitions to the king, called forth by 
the startling development of the trade,* were alike ineff*ect- 

* In less than nine months, 6431 slaves were imported into the single 
colony of South Carolina, from Africa and the West Indies. 



200 PART III. 1763-1797. 

ual. "It is the opinion of this meeting," — thus ran the re- 
solves of the county of Fairfax, George Washington chair- 
man, — " that during our present difiicuUies and distress, no 
slaves ought to be imported into any of the British colonies 
on this continent ; and we take this opportunity of declaring 
our most earnest wishes to see an entire stop forever put to 
such a wicked, cruel, and unnatural trade," (1774.) 

Provocations were gathering heavily and rapidly. 

Chastise- ^_ , t -r» ' p • i 

meiat of Massacliusctts and Boston, loremost m the tea trou- 
Massa- ]j\Qg ^nd, soon after, in the disturbances occasioned 

chusetts 7 7 7 

and Bos- by royal salaries to the governors and judges of the 
colonies, were singled out for peculiar chastisement. 
The Boston port bill closed the harbor of that town to all 
importation and exportation. Then General Gage, com- 
mander-in-chief of the British forces in the colonies, was 
appointed governor of Massachusetts. Not content with 
creating this state of siege, the ministry brought in a bill 
for the better regulating the government of Massachusetts 
Bay, by which the colony was virtually deprived of its 
charter. The councillors and superior judges were all to be 
appointed by the crown ; the inferior judges and other offi- 
cers being left to the nomination of the governor, who was 
invested with a sort of absolute authority. No town meet- 
ings were to be held, except for elections, unless the gov- 
ernor saw fit to make any further exceptions. No juries 
were to be summoned, except by the sheriffs, that is, by the 
officers of the governor. To crown the whole, a third bill 
provided that persons charged with murder in sustaining 
the government, should be sent to another colony or to Eng- 
land for trial — a shrewd precaution, considering the cer- 
tainty of collision between the people and the government 
under the system about to be enforced. Such were the 
measures -by which Massachusetts was to be crushed and 
her sister colonies overawed. The crisis had come with 
the spring and summer of 1774. 



PROVOCATIONS. 201 

Quebec Another proceeding of the same period was in- 
^^^- tended to separate the thirteen colonies from their 

neighbors on the continent. The French settlers in the 
west liad shown some signs of sympathy with the Enghsh 
colonies, not, indeed, by any direct cooperation, or even 
intercourse, but by the same irrepressible instincts after 
liberty. When their petition for a form of government in 
which they could have some share was met by a system in 
which none but the royal officials had any part, the French 
in the Illinois country protested against it with all the fer- 
vor of their nature, (1773.) To keep such spirits down, 
especially to keep them from combining with the kindred 
spirits of the English colonies, seems to have been the main 
object of the Quebec act, by which that province, extended 
from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Mississippi, was 
placed under a government mostly of royal officials. At 
the same time, the French were conciliated by the restora- 
tion of their law and of their church, (1774.) 

Thus cut off from their nortliern and western 
tionsand i^^'ghbors, the inhabitants of the thirteen colonies 
I'rovin- gathered together against the mother-land. A cir- 
gress in cular from Bostou to the towns of Massachusetts 
Massa- called upon them to make common resistance to tlie 

cliusetts. 

recent acts. Several of the towns, or rather coun- 
ties, met by delegates in convention at Boston to resolve 
upon measures of defence, amongst Mdiich "the military 
art" and "a Provincial Congress" were prominent. A con- 
vention of Middlesex county at Concord resolved that " to 
obey them," that is, the acts of Parliament, " would be to 
annihilate the last vestiges of liberty in this province," 
(August.) Ten days after, (September,) a convention of 
Suffolk county at Milton recommended that the detested 
acts " should be rejected as the attempts of a wicked admin- 
istration to enslave America." The next month, (October,) 



202 PART III. 1763-1797 

tlie House of Representatives voted itself a Provincial Con- 
gress. This was decisive. But that it was done, must be 
ascribed not merely to the inherent independence of Massa- 
chusetts, but to the pervading sympathy of the sister 
colonies. 

National " Has not tliis," Avrotc Washington, nearly three 
Bpint. months before, in relation to the acts of Parliament 
and the proceedings of Governor General Gage, — "has not 
this exhibited an unexampled testimony of the most despotic 
system of tyranny that was ever practised in a free govern- 
ment ? . . . Shall we supinely sit, and see one prov- 
ince after another flill a sacrifice to despotism ? . . . 
My nature recoils at the thought of submitting to measures 
which I think subversive of every thing that I ought to hold 
dear and valuable." Such was the tone of every true voice, 
the feeling of every true heart. A national spirit was 
aroused. 

Continen- ^-'^orc than a year previously, Benjamin Franklin 
tai Con- — nov\^ agcut not only for Pennsylvania, but for 
'^"^'''' Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Georgia — wrote 
officially to the Massachusetts House of Representatives, 
recommending a General Congress, (1773.) But it was not 
until ten months afterwards that the project was taken up, 
and then not in Massachusetts, but in Rhode Island. Vir- 
ginia followed close, recommending that the Congress should 
l)e annual, and voting that '' an attack upon one colony was 
an attack upon all British America," (May, 1774.) Rhode 
Island was the first to appoint delegates; Massachusetts 
doing the same almost immediately, and the other colonies, 
Georgia excepted, imitating these examples. The method 
of appointment varied from choice by the assembly, or by a 
convention of the whole colony, to choice by committees, 
county and town, or by a single committee. It was a noble 
body that met at Philadelphia on the 5th of September, 



PROVOCATIONS. 203 

1774. Samuel Adams and John Adams were there from 
Massachusetts ; John Jay from New York ; John Dickin- 
son from Pennsylvania ; George Washington, Patrick 
Henry, and Richard Henry Lee, from Virginia; Christo- 
pher Gadsden and John Rutledge from South Carolina. 
" If you speak of eloquence," said Patrick Henry, on being 
asked about the greatest man in Congress, " Mr. Rutledge 
is by far the greatest orator ; but if you speak of solid in- 
formation and sound judgment. Colonel "Washington is 
unquestionably the greatest man on that floor." It needed 
all that the leaders, all that the members as a body, could 
command, to meet the exigencies of the time. The Congress 
that met to reject the stamp act, nine years before, had but 
child's play to go through, compared with the work of the 
present Congress — the Continental Congress, as it was 
called. 

Taxation had been the substance of three acts of 

Parliament, or, at the most, of four.* There were 
twice or thrice that number t upon other points to be op- 
posed. Against all these provocations the Contmental Con- 
gress put forth their declaration of colonial rights. In this, 
much the same ground as to the allegiance and the general 
rights of the colonies was taken as had been held by the 
earlier Congress. It is therefore a document of secondary 
importance in the progress of our history. 
American ^^^ ^^ ^^^^ American Association. This was a 
Associa- body of articles, by which a stop was to be put, after 

certain dates, to all importation from or exportation 

* The sugar, the stamp, and the tea acts, with the act creating rev- 
enue commissioners. 

t The quartering acts, the act suspending the New York assembly, 
the acts concerning trials for treason and incendiarism, the three acts 
against Massachusetts, the Quebec act, besides those portions of the stamp 
and tea acts relating to Admiralty Courts and royal salaries. 



204 • PART III. 1763-1797. 

to Great Britain and its dependencies, so long as the op- 
pressive acts of Parliament were not repealed. " We will 
neither import nor purchase any slaves imported after the 
first day of December next," was one of the articles ; " after 
which time we will neither be concerned in it ourselves, nor 
will we hire our vessels, nor sell our commodities or manu- 
factures, to those who are concerned in it." Thus humane 
as well as bold, considerate for their inferiors as well as res- 
olute towards their superiors, or those claiming to be such, 
the members of the Continental Congress signed the Amer- 
ican Association. The date was October 20, 1774. It was 
the birthday of the nation. 

Tojifether with the Association and the declara- 

retition ^ 

aiKi ad- tion, there came from Congress a petition to the king 
and addresses to the people of Great Britain, Brit- 
ish America, and Canada, besides letters to Newfoundland, 
Nova Scotia, and the two Floridas. These various docu- 
ments being adopted, and the debates on all the stirring 
questions of the time being concluded, not altogether with 
unanimity. Congress separated, (October 26,) having pro- 
vided that another Congress should be convened, if neces- 
sary, in the ensuing spring. 

reace or " Morc blood," wrotc Washington, during the ses- 
war. gjQj^ q£ Congress, " will be spilled on this occasion, 
if the ministry are determined to push matters to extremity, 
than history has ever yet furnished instances of in the annals 
of North America." "After all," wrote Joseph Hawley from 
Massachusetts to John Adams in Congress, — " after all, we 
must fight." Adams read the letter to his colleague from 
Virginia, the fervid Patrick Henry, \tho burst out with the 
exclamation, " I am of that man's mind ! " It was not the 
opinion of every one. Richard Henry Lee parted from 
Adams with the assurance that " all the offensive acts will 
be repealed. . . . Britain will give up her foolish project." 



PROVOCATIONS. 205 

Prepara- Come peace or come war, the Americans, as they 
tion. rj^YQ hereafter to be called, were prepared. Not, it 
is true, with armies or fortresses, not with the material 
resources which they seemed to require, but with the spirit 
that was of far greater importance, the source of all outward 
strength and success. This spirit was not without its sup- 
ports, intellectual or physical. The struggles with the 
mother country had called out orators and statesmen, whose 
minds were daily making some fresh contribution to the 
thought and the power of humanity. Physically, the 
Americans were increasing their stores and extending their 
domains. The road to the great west was opened with the 
first settlement made in the present Tennessee, (1768.) If 
old weaknesses lingered, if the disputes between colony and 
colony continued, now on a question of boundary, now on 
one of doctrine, they were lost in the union that had been 
achieved, in the nation that had been born. 
18 



CHAPTER II. 

Wak. 

Arming "^^^ "^^^T ^^7 ^^^^^ ^^^^ Continental Congress 
of Massa- separated, — October 26, 1774, — the Provincial 
Congress of Massachusetts took a step decisive of 
Avar. This was the organization of the militia, consisting 
of all the able-bodied men of the colony, one fourth of 
them being constituted minute men, bound to take up arms 
at a minute's warning. Soon afterwards, provision was 
made for supplying the equipments and munitions of an 
army. The whole was placed under the direction of a 
committee of safety, with John Hancock for a chairman. 

The arming of the colony had not been unpro- 
pruvokea voked. Two months before. General Gage, the 
or unan- commander-in-chicf and the governor, had bejrun 

ticipated. n . o 7 o 

to fortify the land approach to Boston. He had 
also seized upon some stores of powder belonging to the 
province at Charlestown. Such was the temper excited 
against liim, that Christopher Gadsden, the representative 
of South Carolina in the Continental Congress, proposed an 
immediate attack upon the British head quarters in Boston. 
Neither was the arming of Massachusetts altogether unan- 
ticipated. No colony, indeed, had gone so far ; but many 
a town, many a band of individuals, was prepared for con- 
flict. A rumor that Boston was bombarded by the British 
brought out numbers of the Connecticut militia to the 
rescue of their countrymen. Years before, when the stamp 

(206) 



WAR. 207 

act was rousing the land to resistance, some ardent New 
Yorkers had voted "to march with all despatch . . . 
to the relief of those who should or might be in danger 
from the stamp act or its abettors," (1765.) The juncture 
thus prepared for arrived when Massachusetts armed her- 
self. From that day, war was inevitable. The British 
authorities would never sit by while such things were going 
on, nor could they attempt any measures of repression 
without arousing the colonists to use the weapons which 
they had assumed. 

The example of Massachusetts was soon followed. 
of other Far and near, the colonies, by act of assembly, or 
CO omcs. ^^ convention, or of individual resolution, took up 
the posture of defence. All the while, the national spirit 
was sustained by the American Association, and by the 
committees appointed to enforce it. Though not universally 
prevalent, the Association had extended itself more widely 
and more deeply than any previous bond of union amongst 
the colonies. Earnest to maintain their ties and their 
rights, the Americans drew out their lines. It was no 
great show in a military point of view. In point of 
courage, of sacrifice, it was sublime. 

Course of '^^^^ 3'^^^' ^^^^ closiug iu England with* a new 
Pariia- Parliament, in which the majorities for the ministry 
were irresistible. Amongst the members was a 
native of New York, Henry Cruger, who, having settled 
as a merchant at Bristol, was elected mayor, and returned 
to Parliament. In the prime of manhood, flushed with 
generous emotion for the country of his birth, although 
opposed to its revolutionary courses, he rose to make his 
maiden speech against the severities with which the minis- 
try was threatening America. " Can it be believed," he 
cries, " that Americans will be dragooned into a conviction 
of this right of parliamentary taxation ? " The plea was 



208 PART III. 1763-1797. 

taken up by men of greater influence. As the new year 
(1775) opened, Chatham and Burke devoted themselves to 
obtaining justice for America. In vain ; the petition of the 
Continental Congress to the king was refused a hearing ; 
rebellion was declared to exist in Massachusetts, and to be 
abetted by other colonies. The " New England restraining 
act " cut off the New England colonies from the fishery and 
from all trade, save to Great Britain, Ireland, and the Brit- 
ish West Indies. The prohibition was soon extended to 
the other colonies ; New York, North Carolina, and Georgia 
being spared on account of their expected submission. At 
the same time. Lord North, the prime minister, brought out 
what he called a conciliatory proposition, to the effect that 
the colonies should not be taxed by Parliament, if they 
would tax themselves, and therewith raise the sums Avhich 
Parliament should deem necessary. " They complain," 
was the decisive reply of Edmund Burke, '' that they are 
taxed without their consent ; you answer that you will fix 
the sum at which they shall be taxed. That is, you give 
them the very grievance for the remedy." The proposition, 
thus clearly seen through by an Englishman, was not likely 
to blind Americans. Out of Parliament, there were few to 
take any active part in relation to America. We should 
not, however, pass ovtr the suggestion of Dr. Tucker, Dean 
of Gloucester, that Parliament should declare the colonies 
separated from the mother country until they humbled 
themselves to ask for forgiveness and for restoration. Had 
the dean's idea been adopted, how much wrong, how much 
blood, might have been saved ! 

ri,.^t I^ut the Americans and the British were now to 

collision, jiieet in arms. A party of one hundred and fifty 
troops, sent from Boston to seize some cannon at Salem, 
not finding it there, marched on towards Danvers. On their 
wa}^, they came to a bridge, occupied at first by a few coun- 



WAR. 209 

try people, but presently by a company of militia under 
Colonel Pickering. As the draw was up, the British at- 
tempted to cross the stream in boats, and in doing so, used 
their bayonets freely enough to wound the men who kept 
the boats from them. A serious conflict would have en- 
sued but for the mediation of Mr. Barnard, a clergyman 
of Salem, who prevailed on the British officer. Lieutenant 
Colonel Leslie, to return in case the troops were allowed 
to cross the bridge. This was agreed to on the American 
side ; the troops crossed, advanced a few rods, then faced 
about, and retired without the cannon of which they had 
come in search. The date was February 26, 1775. 
jtg sio-- The collision is memorable as the first of the 
nificance. y^yr^y^ Jt jg q\^q ^q \yQ remarked as strikingly sig- 
nificant of the collisions that followed. The same paucity 
of numbers, the same restriction of movements, the same 
ineffectiveness of results, characterize the Mdiole strife be- 
tween Great Britain and America. We must be prepared 
for operations on a small scale, and with a small effect, each 
taken alone. Taken together, however, the operations of 
the war bear a nearer proportion to the greatness of the 
stakes at issue. 

Lexin"-- "^^^^ ucxt cncountcr was more serious. It took 
ton and placc in the early morning of April 19. A force 
of eight hundred troops, marching from Boston to 
Concord, for the purpose of destroying the military stores 
collected in that place, met not quite a hundred minute 
men at Lexington. The British fired ; the minute men 
returned the fire, but, of course, retreated, leaving a few 
of their number killed and wounded. The men of Concord 
retired before the troops without attempting resistance ; but 
from the surrounding towns there came other minute men 
so numerous and so spirited as to engage with the British, 
and compel them to retreat. The retreat became a flight ; 
18* 



210 PART III. 1763-1797. 

nor would the fugitives have escaped but for the reenforce- 
ments wliich met them at Lexington. The number of the 
Americans being also on the increase, the retreat, resumed 
at Lexmgton, proved very difficult. Had it been protract- 
ed, the arrival of fresh parties of minute men would have 
cut it off altogether. As it was, the British, out of seven- 
teen hundred troops, lost nearly three hundred m killed, 
wounded, and prisoners. The Americans, amounting in all 
to several hundred, lost less than one hundred. 

" An inhuman soldiery," wrote Joseph Warren, 
Meckien- pi*esident of the Provincial Congress, to the com- 
burg dec- ruittees of safety throuf>;hout Massachusetts, " en- 

laratiou. ' 

raged at being repulsed from the field of slaughter, 
will, without the least doubt, take the first opportunity in 
their power to ravage this devoted country with fire and 
sword. We conjure you, tlierefore, that you give all assist- 
ance possible in forming an army." Massachusetts voted 
that at least thirty thousand men ought to be raised by 
New England, herself furnishing nearly half the number. 
Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire soon re- 
sponded, but not quite so hberally as the sister colony had 
desired. Out of New England, the agitation was the same. 
" The once happy and peaceful plains of America," wrote 
Washington from Philadelphia, " are either to be drenched 
with blood or inhabited by slaves. Sad alternative ! But 
can a virtuous man hesitate in his choice?" The news, 
travelling slowly, reached the town of Charlotte, Mecklen- 
burg county. North Carolina, where a county convention 
was in session. It lent resolution to the delegates, who 
soon declared their independence of " the authority of the 
king and Parliament . . . and the former civil consti- 
tution of these colonies,"* (May.) The declaration of 

*• Two sets of resolutions exist, one much stronger than the other, but 
both equally stroni? upon the point of independence. The dates likewise 
vary, but both profess to have been adopted in the latter half of May, 1775. 



WAR. 211 

Mecklenburg county was communicated to the Provincial 
Congress of the colony, without, however, obtaining the 
sympathy of that assembly. It was also forwarded to the 
North Carolina representatives in the Continental Congress ; 
but so little did it move them, that they did not even lay it 
before their colleagues. 

War in '^^^ troops of Ncw England were gathering 
Massa- about Boston. The people of Massachusetts sent 

an address to the people of Great Britain. " Ap- 
pealing to Heaven," they declared, " for the justice of our 
cause, we determine to die or to be free." Repelling a 
Connecticut offer of mediation between herself and her 
governor. General Gage, Massachusetts voted him " an 
unnatural and inveterate enemy " — a compliment which he 
afterwards returned by pronouncing the Massachusetts 
people " rebels and traitors." The breach yawned wide, 
and wider still, as the passions and the outrages of war 
poured in. 

So far the Americans had acted on the defensive. 
ogacanr ^^^^ "^^^ ^ band of volunteers from Connecticut 
Crown and the Green Mountains, led by Ethan Allen and 

Seth Warner, with whom went Benedict Aniold, 
under a Massachusetts commission, surprised the small gar- 
risons at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, (May 10-12.) 
Descending thence against various places on Lake Cham- 
plain, the adventurous band secured a large booty, and then 
separated, leaving a considerable portion of their number 
in possession of the Point and Ticonderoga. 
j^^^^ The spirit aroused in action appeared in delibera- 
ings in tiou likewise. When the new Congress assembled 
Congress. ^^ Philadelphia in the spring, (May 10,) it began 
upon measures more determined by far than those of the 
former body. The members were mostly the same ; but 
the circumstances in which they met were as different as 



212 PART III. 1763-1797. 

peace and war. Massachusetts opened the way to new res- 
olutions, by recommending the creation of an American 
army, and by asking instruction as to the form of govern- 
ment under which she should place herself. Congress an- 
swered the request by advising the election of a council and 
an assembly, who should administer the colony by them- 
selves, until a governor should appear to take his part ac- 
cording to the charter of 1G91. Soon afterwards, the Pro- 
vincial Congress of Massachusetts gave way to a General 
Court or assembly. The recommendation of an army was 
followed by Congress in adopting the troops before Boston 
as the American continental army. To this were also 
summoned a few companies of riflemen from the southern 
colonies. 

Washing- The creation of an army required the creation 
ton ap- Qf r^ commander. No act of Congress could be 
conimanti- morc unportaut, none proved more successful, than 
ei-m-chief. ^j^^ appointment of Colonel George Washington, 
representative from Virginia. " We, the delegates of the 
United Colonies," — thus runs the commission of Washing- 
ton, — "■ reposing special trust and confidence in your patriot- 
ism, conduct, and fidelity, do by these presents constitute 
and appoint you to be general and commander-in-chief of 
the army of the United Colonies. . . . And you are 
hereby vested with full power and authority to act as you 
shall think for the good and welfare of the service." Rapid 
as these outlines of events must be, they will bear repeated 
testimony to the unequalled, indeed the liitherto unconceived 
devotion of Washington to the cause of his country. His 
acceptance of the commission, itself the greatest act of sac- 
rifice that he could make, was accompanied by the refusal 
of all pecuniary compensation for his services. It was a 
memorable day when this devoted career began — June 15, 
1775. 



WAR. 213 

Bunker As if to do honor to the general thus given them, 
^^^"- the New England troops, just declared the conti- 
nental army, furnished a detachment of one thousand, under 
Colonel Prescott, to take possession of Bunker's Hill, a 
point of great importance to the lines around Boston. He, 
through a mistake assisted by the ardor of his character, 
threw up his redoubt upon Breed's Hill, an eminence con- 
siderably nearer to the town. Reenforced by a thousand 
men, the party completed their fortifications in time to re- 
ceive the three thousand British troops assailing them from 
Boston. Twice was the advance of the enemy re[)elled ; 
but the failure of ammunition obliged the Americans to 
retreat, leaving one of their most heroic hearts. President 
and Major General Joseph AVarren, dead upon the field. 
Four hundri'd and fifty of tiiem iu all were killed or wound- 
ed; the British losing more than twice that number. The 
battle of Banker Hill, as it was afterwards called, has been 
greatly magnified beyond the importance attached to it at 
the time. But there can be no question of its haviug done 
much to mortify the British, who had always boasted that 
the Americans would fly before them, as well as much to 
elate the Americans, although they had always boasted that 
they would resist their foes, (June 17.) 

Washington heard of the battle at New York, on 

Wasliincc- , . , tt • i • • i 

ton at the his Avay to the army. Hastenmg his journey, he 
hea^iof r^i-i-iyed r^t Cambridge, which was to be his head 

the army. ^ 

quarters, and assumed the command. On the next 
day, July 4, he issued an order to the forces. " The Con- 
tinental Congress," he proclaimed, " having now taken all 
the troops of the several colonies, which have been raised 
or which may be hereafter raised for the support and de- 
fence of the liberties of America, into their pay and service, 
they are now the troops of the United Provinces of North 
America ; and it is hoped that all distinctions of colonies 



214 PART III. 1763-1797. 

will be laid aside, so that one and the same spirit may ani- 
mate the whole. . . . The general requires and expects 
of all officers, not engaged on actual duty, a punctual attend- 
ance on divine service, to implore the blessings of Heaven 
upon the means used for our safety and defence." TJius 
appealing to the love of country and to the fear of God, 
"Washington called upon his countrymen to do their duty in 
the war. 

Difficui- Not every one was disposed to hear him. In- 
^^^^' deed, there were but few who came up to the stan- 
dard of their chief, either as soldiers or as men. When we 
read of their deficiencies and of his embarrassments, we 
must remember that he and those like him were the repre- 
sentatives of the better class of Americans, already described 
as most prominent and most wise during the struggles of 
the preceding years. They, on the otlier hand, who fell 
short of the demands upon them, were of the other classes, 
the rash or the timid, the too presumptuous or the too sub- 
missive. 

Siege of Washington at once determined to lay regular 
Boston, siege to Boston. His first object was merely to 
shut up the British in the town, (July.) Presently, he 
tried to bring on an attack from the enemy against the 
American lines, (August.) This failing, he formed the pur- 
pose of attacking the British in their own lines, (Septem- 
ber.) He deferred to the objections of his officers, and put 
off the assault, without, however, abandoning his designs. 
All the while, he had no arms, no ammunition, no pay for 
his troops from Congress ; no general support from his offi- 
cers or men ; no obedience even, at times, from the soldiers 
or from the crews of the armed vessels acting in concert 
with the army. It was very difficult to fill the ranks to any 
degree at all proportioned to the operations of the siege. 
" Tliei-e must be some other stimulus," he writes to the 



WAE. 215 

president of Congress, " besides love for their country, to 
make men fond of the service." " Such a dearth of public 
spirit," he laments to a personal friend, " and such want of 
virtue, such stockjobbing and fertility to obtain advantages 
of one kind and another, I never saw before, and pray 
God's mercy that I may never be witness to again. . . , 
I tremble at the prospect. . . . Could I have foreseen 
what I have experienced and am likely to experience, no 
consideration upon earth should have induced me to accept 
this command." Such were the circumstances, and such 
the feelings, in which the commander-in-chief found himself 
conducting the great operation of the year. 
General ^-^ ^^^^* ^^"^^ there was not only an army, but a 
govern- government of America. Thfe Continental Con- 
gress, declaring themselves to be acting " in defence 
of the freedom that is our birthright," took all the meas- 
ures, military, financial, and di[)lomatic, which the cause 
appeared to require. The organization of the army was 
continued ; that of the militia was attempted. A naval 
committee was appointed, and a navy — if the name can be 
used on so small a scale — was called into existence. Hos- 
pitals were provided. Several millions of continental cur- 
rency were issued, and a treasury department created. A 
post oilice was also organized. Several of the colonies who 
had applied for advice upon the point were recommended to 
frame governments for themselves. The Indian relations 
were reduced to system. A last petition to the king, with 
addresses to Great Britain and London, Ireland and Ja- 
maica, was adopted. More significant than all else was the 
appointment of a committee of secret correspondence with 
Europe. In short, the functions of a general government 
were assumed by Congress and recognized throughout the 
colonies. 

At the beginning of August, Georgia signified her acces- 



216 PART III. 1763-1797. 

„^ ^^. sion to the other colonies, thus completinfj- the thir- 

The thir- ' ^ ° 

teen com- teen. A fourteenth offered itself in Transylvania, 
^ ^ ^' the present Kentucky, where one or two small set- 
tlements had just been made. But Congress could not 
admit the delegate of a territory which Virginia claimed as 
under her jurisdiction. The nation and the government 
remained as the Thirteen United Colonies. 
Military Military operations, apart from the siege of Bos- 
operatious. ^^^^ were uumcrous, if not extensive. The landing 
of a British party at Gloucester was repelled. The fort 
near Charleston was seized by the Americans, who also 
drove the British shii)S out of the harbor. Norfolk, for 
some time in the hands of the British, was recovered after 
a gallant action. On the other hand, Stonington, Bristol, 
and Falmouth were not saved from bombardment, Fal- 
mouth (now Portland) being nearly annihilated. The 
Americans, in return, sent out their privateers ; those com- 
missioned by Washington, especially his " famous Manly," 
as he called one of his captains, doing great execution in 
Massachusetts Bay. Offensive operations were pursued on 
land. A projected expedition against Nova Scotia was 
given up, chiefly on account of the friendly feeling of that 
province. But a twofold force, partly from the New York 
and partly from the Maine side, marched against Canada. 
St. John's and Montreal were taken by the Americans under 
General Montgomery, who fell in an assault on Quebec the 
last day of the year. Arnold, the same who had gone 
against Crown Point and Ticonderoga, kept up the show of 
besieging Quebec through the winter, but in the spring the 
Americans retreated within their own borders. One of the 
most successful operations of the period was towards the 
close of Avinter, when fifteen hundred Highlanders and Reg- 
ulators, who had enlisted under the royal banner in North 
Carolina, were defeated by two thirds their number of 



WAR. 217 

Americans, under Colonel Moore. It saved the province 
to the country. 

The mention of those enlisted in the royal cause 

Loyalists. , . ,. . . 

suggests the mcreasmg divisions amongst the Amer- 
icans. A large number, who had looked on or even joined 
in the proceedings of former days, drew off, if they did not 
take a hostile position, in these days of war. Companies 
and regiments of royal or loyal Ameiicans began to alx)und. 
Some of these loyalists, as they were styled, were rouglily 
handled by their indignant neighbors, who spared neither 
person nor property. One of the New York Sons of Lib- 
erty, Isaac Sears, impatient at the moderate course pursued 
by the committee of safety, brought in an armed band from 
Connecticut, to destroy the press of Rivington's Gazetteer, 
a journal in tlic British interest. Such doings were more 
likely to introduce dissensions amongst the patriots than to 
subdue the loyalists. But when did riot fail to go hand in 
hand with war ? 

Great Britain, on her part, was united. Few 
Lrjtniu and faint were the voices raised in defence of the 
deter- Amcricaus, since the news of Lexington and Bun- 

miued. 

ker Ililh Edmund Burke and one or two of the 
same spirit continued to plead for the American cause, but 
all unavailingly. The last petition of Congress to the king 
was rejected. A bill of confiscation, as it may be called, 
w^as passed against the trade, the merchandise, and the ship- 
ping of the colonies; whatever crews might be captured 
were to be impressed into the British navy. The army in 
America was augmented to forty thousand, partly by British 
and partly by German troops. In fine, the reduction of the 
colonies was the one great object with the larger part of the 
people, as with the rulers of Great Britain. 

All the while, Washington w^as before Boston. But his 
attention was not w^hoUy concentrated there. On the con- 
19 



218 PART III. 17G3-1797. 

,„ , . trary, Ws voice was to be heard in all directions, on 

Washing- J ' 

ton before tlic marcli to Canada, in the posts of New York, on 
oston. |jQ^j,(j ^Y\Q national cruisers, at the meetings of com- 
mittees and assemblies, in the provincial legislatures, within 
Congress itself, every where pointing out what was to be 
done, and the spirit in which it was to be done. They who 
doubt his military ability or his intellectual greatness will 
do well to follow him*through these first months of the war ; 
if they do it faithfully, they will doubt no more. The 
activity, the judgment, the executive power, and above all 
the moral poAver of the great general and the great man 
are nowhere in history more conspicuous than in those 
rude lines before Boston. 

To add to the difficulties of the sieGfe, the army 

R««overy *^ -^ 

of the ^ went tlirough a complete process of disbanding and 
recruiting, on account of the general unwillingness 
to serve for any length of time. Without men and without 
munitions, Washington sublimely kept his post, until, after 
months of disappointment, he obtained the means to take 
possession of Dorchester Heights, whence the town was 
completely commanded. The enemy, under General Howe, 
had long meditated the evacuation of the place ; and they 
now the more readily agreed to leave it on condition that 
they should be unmolested. The 17th of March, 1776, 
eight months and a half from the time that Washington 
undertook the siege, his generalship and his constancy were 
rewarded with success. 

The Vic- It '^^'^s certainly an amazing victory. "I have 
tory. been here months together," he wrote to his brother, 
" with what will scarcely be believed, not thirty rounds of 
musket cartridges to a man, , . . We have maintained 
our ground against the enemy under this want of powder, 
and we have disbanded one army, and recruited another, 
within musket shot of two and twenty regiments, the flower 



WAR. 219 

of the British army, whilst our force has been but little, if 
any, superior to theirs ; and, at last, have beaten them into 
a shameful and precipitate retreat out of a place the strong- 
est by nature • on this continent, and strengthened and forti- 
fied at an enormous expense." Such being the result of 
the only operation in which the Americans and the British 
met each other as actual armies, there was reason for 
Washington and his true-hearted countrymen to exult and 
to hope. 

incroas- ^ut the country was in danger. An attack was 
ing perils, feared at New York ; another at Charleston : the 
whole coast, indeed, lay open and defenceless. The year 
of warfare ended in greater apprehensions and in greater 
perils than those in which it began. 



CHAPTER III. 

Declaration of Independence. 



Transfer- TiiE coloiiies were fighting at a disadvantage, 
ma ion -^^^ ^^^^^ were their resources, in a mihtary point 



of colo- 
nies to of view, inferior to those of their great antagonist ; 

tliis was but a minor consideration with them. Tliey 

were taxed with rebeUion ; they were branded with the 

name of rebels by their enemies, nay, by those of their 

own people who opposed the war. On many, these epithets 

made no impression ; they were rather acceptable than 

otherwise to the more ardent and the more violent. But 

to the moderate and to the calm, it was intolerable to be 

charged with mere sedition. They to whom the nation 

owed all that was prudent, as well as vahant in its present 

situation, were men of law and order in a peculiar degree. 

The earliest care with those of Massachusetts, after the 

affair of Lexington, had been to prove that the British 

troops were the first to fire ; in other words, that the people 

were defending, and not transgressing, their rights. So 

now it became a matter of the highest interest to set the 

war in its true light, by raising the Americans from the 

position of subjects to that of a nation. There was but 

one way, and this the transformation of the colonies into 

states. 

j^^ ^ J. The idea of independence, however, was of slow 

iiuiepena- growtli. The Mecklenburg declaration, as we have 

read, found no favor. The general, if not the 

r99,o^ 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 221 

universal, sentiment was still in favor of reconciliation. 
" During the course of my life," said John Jay in later 
years, " and until after the second petition of Congress in 
1775, I never heard an American of any class or of arwy 
description express a wish for the independence of the 
colonies." But when that petition of Congress to the king 
was rejected, when the English government, in consequence, 
pledged itself to continue its system of oppression, then the 
resolution of the colonies rose, all the more determined for 
having been delayed. 

Nearly a year had elapsed since the North Caro- 
Ciiroiina lini^ns of Mccklcnburg county made their declara- 
and vir- tjon, when the North Carolinians of the entire 

ginin. 

colony united in authorizing their delegates in Con- 
gress to concur with those of the other colonies in declaring 
independence, (April 23, 177G.) A few weeks afterwards, 
(May 15,) the Virginians instructed their delegates to 
propose a declaration of independence to Congress. 

Congress had already committed itself. Its rec- 
' ommendations of the year previous to some of the 
colonies, that they should set up governments for them- 
selves, had just been extended to all. It had also voted 
" that the exercise of every kind of authority under the 
crown should be totally suppressed," (May 15.) What 
else was this than to pronounce the colonies independent 
states ? Subsequent resolutions and declarations were but 
the carrying out of the decision already made. 
iiesita- But as it had not been made, so it was not car- 
tion. pjg^ Q^^ without hesitation. More than one earnest 
mind, bent upon independence in the end, considered the 
course of things thitherward to be much too hurried. " My 
countrymen," wrote Washington, (April 1,) "from their 
form of government, and their steady attachment hereto- 
fore to royalty, will come reluctantly into the idea of inde- 
19* 



PART III. 1763-1797 



pendence ; but time and persecution bring many wonderful 
things to pass." He was right; the spirits and numbers 
of those resolved upon immediate independence increased 
apace 

Lee's res- The instructions of Virginia were soon obeyed, 
oiution. Upon the journals of Congress, under date of June 
7, there occurs an affecting entry of " certain resolutions 
respecting independency being moved and seconded." No 
names are mentioned, no words of the resolutions are 
recorded. It is as if Congress had felt its own feebleness 
in comparison with the solemnity of the cause, and so 
deeply, as to hold its breath and give no sign of what was 
passing. The mover was Richard Henry Lee, of Virginia, 
the seconder John Adams, of Massachusetts ; and the reso- 
lution was, " That these United Colonies are, and of right 
ought to be, free and mdependent states ; that they are 
absolved from all allegiance to the British crown ; and that 
all political connection between them and the state of Great 
Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved." 

Opposition was immediate and resolute. At its 
head stood John Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, whose 
ten years' championship of colonial rights was assurance 
of his present faithfuhiess. The ground common to him 
and to the other opponents of the resolution was simply the 
prematureness of the measure. Nor does it seem that they 
were altogether mistaken. Whatever was urged by the 
advocates of the resolution, there were but seven colonies, 
the barest possible majority, to unite in favor of a proceed- 
ing so decisive, (June 10.) Instead of pressing their views, 
the party in favor of the resolution were wise enough to 
postpone its final disposition for several weeks. On the 
other side, the opposing party, so far from exciting the 
country against the resolution, appear to have decided that 
it should have a fair consideration, and that if the colonies 



DECLAIIATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 223 

rejecting it could be brought to favor it, they would be 
satisfied by the delay that had been interposed for delib- 
eration 

At the same time, a committee was appointed to 
tee on prepare a declaration according to the tenor of the 
deciara- resolution. Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia, John 

tion. ^ _ ^ . 

Adams, Benjamin Franklin, of Pennsylvania, Roger 
Sherman, of Connecticut, and Robert R. Livingston, of New 
York, constituting the committee, united upon a draught by 
Jefferson. "Whether I had gathered my ideas," he said 
at a later time, " from reading or reflection, I do not know. 
I know only that I turned to neither book nor })am})hlet 
while writing it. I did not consider it as any part of my 
charge to invent new ideas altogether, and to offer no senti- 
ment which had never been expressed before." Truth to 
be told, there was neither originality nor novelty in the 
production. Its facts, so far as they related to the course 
of Britain or of the British king, were pecuhar to the 
cause at issue. But the principles of human and of colo- 
nial rights were substantially such as Englishman after 
Englishman, as well as American after American, had 
asserted. The merit of the document was its appropriate- 
ness, its harmony with the ideas of a people who had risen 
to defend their birthright, rather than to win any thing not 
already theirs. The committee reported the declaration to 
Congress, (June 28.) 

Resoiu- ^^^ adoption depended upon the adoption of the 
tion resolution of which it was but the expression. The 
aiope. j,ggQjy^jQj^ ^y^g therefore called up, (July 1.) A 
day's debate ensued; nor was the decision unanimous. 
Four delegations hung back ; one. New York, because it 
had received no instructions to vote upon so grave a ques- 
tion ; the other three, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and South 
Carolina, on account of their own reluctance. The South 



224 PART III. 17G3-1797. 

Carolinians asked the postponement of a definitive vote 
until the next morning. 'Wlien the morning came, they 
withdrew their opposition. The Pennsylvanian and Dela- 
ware delegates — some members retiring and others com- 
ing in — gave their voices likewise to the resolution. It 
thus received the unanimous vote of all the colonies, New 
York excepted, and she only for a few days, until her dele- 
gates could be instructed to concur with" their colleagues, 
(July 9-15.) It was the 2d of July, 1776, the true date 
of American independence.* 
, - ., The declaration followed as a matter of course. 

And tlie 

deciara- It was delayed only to receive a few amendments, 
when it was adopted by the same vote as the reso- 
lution, (July 4.) 

^j^^ Thus were the colonies of Great Britain trans- 

United formed into the United States of America. " As 
free and independent states," were the words of the 
declaration, " they have full power to levy war, conclude 
peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all 
other acts and things which independent states may of right 
do." No longer the subjects of Great Britain, but an 
equally independent nation, the United States were no 
longer open to imputations upon their course from abroad, 
or to doubts of it amongst themselves. When Admiral 
Lord Howe, and his brother, the general, commander-in- 
chief of the British army, offered amnesty in the king's 
name to all Americans who would return to their allegiance, 
the offer was regarded as a national insult by Congress. 
What had Great Britain to forgive, or who had asked for 
forgiveness ? 

The day after a committee had been ajipointcd to draw 

* As the utmost discrepancy exists amongst the later histories as to 
these votes and dates, it seems advisable to state that Jetferson and 
Adams are the authorities followed in the text. 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 225 

up the declarntion, another, and a larger one, re- 
confed- ceivcd the chiU'ge of preparmg a plan of confedera- 
tion, (June 12.) This was reported a week after 
the adoption of the declaration, but no action was taken 
uj^on it, (July 12.) Circumstances postponed any decision ; 
nor were the Articles of Confederation and Perpetual 
Union, as they were styled, actually adopted by Congress 
until more than a year later, ^November 15-17, 1777,) 
when they were recommended to the states for adoption. 
A long time elapsed before all the states complied. 
,, ., Meanwhile Congress continued to be the unithip; 

Unity ° ^ o 

iu Con- as well as the governing authority. Its members, 
^"^'' renewed from time to time by their respective con- 
stituencies, met together as the representatives, not merely 
of the different states, but of the common nation. It was 
imperfectly, as we shall perceive, that Congress served the 
purpose of a central power. Its treaties, its laws, its 
finances, its armaments, all depended upon the consent and 
the cooperation of the states. But it continued to be the 
body in which the states were blended together, however 
variously, in one. 

g^^^^ The states were every where forming govern- 

constitu- ments of their own. Massachusetts took the lead, 
as was observed, in the early summer of 1775. 
Six or seven months afterwards, New Hampshire organized 
her assembly and council, with a president of the latter 
body, (1776.) The same year brought about the establish- 
ment of state authorities in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 
Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina. 
Of the other states, Rhode Island and Connecticut were 
naturally content with the liberal governments which al- 
ready existed under their ancient charters. New York 
and Georgia set up their governments a year subsequently, 
(1777.) But the original forms underwent numerous and 



226 PART III. 1763-1797. 

repeated modifications ; each state amending its constitution 
or constructing a new one, according to its exigencies. As 
a general thing, each had a governor, with or without a 
council, for an executive ; a council, or Senate, and a House 
of Representatives, for a legislature ; and one or more 
judicial bodies for a judiciary. Indeed, the states were 
much more thoroughly organized than the nation. 

Both constitutions and declarations had arisen 

Divisions ^. . -,. . . mi t/y» 

amongst amidst the most distractmg divisions. Ihe diner- 
thepeo- ences in Congress, or amongst the leading class 
throughout the country, were trifling in comparison 
with the factions of the people as a whole. On this side 
were flaming patriots, who thought nothing done unless 
outcry and force were employed ; on that were selfish and 
abject spirits, thinking that nothing should be done at all. 
Tories, or loyalists, abounded in one place ; in another, 
rioters and marauders ; every where dark plots were laid, 
dark deeds perpetrated. The greater was the work of 
those, the few, the wise, and the devoted, who led the 
nation through its strifes to independence. 



CHAPTER IV. 

War, continued. 

Second Period. 

Three The war of independence naturally divides itself 

periods. [y^^^Q tlircc periods. Of these, the first has been de- 
scribed in a preceding chapter, as beginning with the arm- 
ing of Massachusetts, in October, 1774, and extending to 
the recovery of Boston, in March, 1776 — a period of a 
year and a half, of which something less than a year, dat- 
ing from the aifrays at Lexington and Concord, was actually 
a period of war. We are now to go through the second 
and third periods. 

Charac- "^^^^ sccoud period is of little more than two years 
teristics — from April, 1776, to July, 1778. The chief 
ond peri- poii^ts to characterize it are these, namely, that the 
«^'- main operations were in the north, and that the 

Americans fought tlvelr battles without allies. 
Rece tion "^^^^ Declaration of Independence was transmitted 
ofthoDec-to the commander-in-chief, with the request of Con- 
gress to " have it proclaimed at the head of the 
army." It was what both commander and army had been 
waiting for. " The general hopes " — thus ran the order of 
the day — " that this important event will serve as a fresh 
incentive to every officer and soldier to act with fidelity and 
courage, as knowing that now the peace and safety of bis 
country depend, under God, solely on the guccess of our 

(227) 



228 PART III. 1763-1797. 

arms, and that lie is now in the service of a state possessed 

of sufficient power to reward his merit and advance liim to 

the highest honors of a free country," (July 9.) On the 

same day, Washington wrote to the president of Congress : 

" I caused the Declaration to be proclaimed before all the 

army under my immediate command, and have the pleasure 

to inform Congress that the measure seemed to have their 

most hearty assent ; the expressions and behavior, both of 

officers and men, testifying their warmest approbation of it." 

The adhesion of the army was one thing ; their obedience 

to the inspiration which their commander suggested was 

another. But, for the moment, a new impulse seemed to be 

felt by all. 

A brilliant feat of arms had preceded the dec- 
Defence of ^ 
Charles- laration. The anticipated descent upon the south- 

*'^"" ern coast was made off Charleston, by a British 

force, partly land and partly naval, under the command of 

General Clinton and Admiral Parker. The Americans, 

chiefly mihtia, were under General Lee. Fort Sullivan,* a 

few miles below Charleston, became the object of attack. 

It was so gallantly defended, the fort itself by Colonel 

Moultrie, and an adjoining battery by Colonel Thomson, 

that the British were obliged to abandon their expedition 

and retire to the north, (June 28.) ^ A long time passed 

before the enemy reappeared in the south. 

Meanwhile Washington had transferred his quar- 

Lnss of '^ 

New ters from Boston to New York, (April 13,) which 
^^^^' he was busy in fortifying against the expected foe. 
Troops from Halifax, under General Howe, joined by 
British and Hessians under Admiral Howe, and by the dis- 
comfited forces of the southern expedition, landed at various 
times on Staten Island, to the number of between twenty 

* Afterwards Fort Moultrie, 



WAR, CONTINUED. 220 

and lliirty thousand. The number of the Americans was 
considerably less. After long delays, the enemy crossed to 
Long Island, and routed the American detachments under 
General Putnam, (August 27.) A speedy retreat to New 
York Island alone saved the Americans from a surrender. 
A fortnight after, the British crossed in pursuit, the ad- 
vanced posts of the Americans actually flying before them, 
(September 15.) The city of New York was at once evac- 
uated by Washington, who led hi* forces towards the north. 
" We are now encamped," he writes, " with the main body 
of the army on the Heights of Haerlem, where I should 
hope the enemy would meet with a defeat in case of an 
attack, if the generality of our troops would behave Avitli 
tolerable bravery. But experience, to my extreme afllic- 
tlon, has convinced me that this is rather to be wished for 
than expected." He did not write thus without good rea- 
son. Little besides incompetency and desertion on the part 
of his men had attended his vain attempt to save New 
York. 

Loss succeeded loss. Tavo defeats on Lake 

Loss of • 

Lake Cliamplaiu drove the Americans, under Benedict 
plain and Arnold, not onl}^ from the lake, but from the fortress 
the lower of Crowu Point, (October 11-14.) In the neigh- 
borhood of New^ York, Washington w^as obliged to 
abandon one position after another ; the defeat of White 
Plains (October 28) making still farther retreat necessary. 
The forts upon the Hudson were presently lost ; Fort Wash- 
ington being taken wdth its garrison, (November 16,) and 
Fort Lee being evacuated, (November 20.) With a di- 
minishing army, in which, moreover, he had lost his confi- 
dence, the commander-in-chief decided to foil back from the 
banks of the Hudson into New Jersey. 
Loss of « At the same time that the Americans w^ere re- 
Newport. treating from New York, another of their chief 
20 



230 PART III. 1763-1797. 

towns upon the seaboard was captured. A large detach' 
ment from the British army took possession of Newport 
without a blow, (December 8.) Tlie island was overrun, 
and Providence blockaded. 

Losses increased defections. " Between you and 

Defence of • *^^ 

New Jer- me," writcs Washington on his retreat, " I think our 
^^^' affairs are in a very bad condition, — not so much 
from the apprehension of General Howe's army, as from 
the defection of New Yo^lv, the Jerseys, and Pennsylvania. 
In short, the conduct of the Jerseys has been most infamous. 
. . . If every nerve ig not strained, ... I think the 
game is pretty nearly up," (December 18.) Disheartening 
as were the circumstances, he called around him his more 
iixithful officers, and with them planned an achievement 
which seemed to require all the encouragements of pros- 
perity and of sympathy. Followed by his handful of twen- 
ty-four hundred, while other detachments failed to keep up 
with him, he crossed the Delaware amid the ice and the 
cold of Christmas night, and on the following morning took 
a thousand Hessian prisoners at Trenton. The British 
immediately advanced against him. He could not meet 
them ; for it would be destruction to his inferior numbers. 
He would not retreat before them ; for it would be despair 
to his gallant adherents. To avoid either alternative, he 
marched, after a slight engagement, round the flank and 
upon the rear of the hostile army. Three hundred prison- 
ers, the safety and the increased animation of his soldiers 
and his countrymen, were his reward. The only drawback 
was the loss of many brave spirits, amongst whom none was 
braver than General IMercer. Had Washington had but a 
few hundred fresh troops, he would have pushed on to 
Brunswick and destroyed the entire stores of the en(imy. 
As it was, the rising of the militia, and the continued activity 
of Washington, even in his winter quarters, cle'?ired the 



WAR, CONTINUED. 231 

State of the invaders, excepting at Brunswick and Amboy. 

Six months after, it was totally evacuated, (June 30, 1777.) 

All the time that Washincfton was thus retreating; 

Organiza- *^ *^ 

tion of and advancing, he was enforcing the lesson of his 
^^^^' experiences upon the government. He could do 
comparatively little, as he repeatedly informed Congress, 
for want of no less essential an instrument than an army. 
The American forces, during the campaign, had consisted in 
part of continental, or regular, and in part of militia troops, 
all raised on different terms, — that is, by different bounties 
and under different appointments, — by the different states. 
What Washington wanted, what the country needed, was 
an army recruited, officered, equipped, and paid upon a 
national system. Nor was Congress insensible to the neces- 
sity. Before the declaration of independence, a board of 
war and of ordnance had been chosen from the members of 
Congress, to dire^^t the military affairs of the nation. After- 
wards, when the calamities of the autumn were weighing 
heavily. Congress ordered the formation of a continental 
army. But the wants, thus attempted to be supplied, con- 
tinued. It was left entirely to the states to raise the troops 
and to appoint all but the general officers, while the pay 
and the term of enlistment proposed by Congress were 
wholly inadequate to the emergencies on which Washington 
insisted. " The measure was not commenced," wrote he to 
his brother, " till it was too late to be effected, and then in 
such a manner as to bid adieu to every hope of getting an 
army from which any services are to be expected." " The 
unhappy policy of short enlistments," the need of " some 
greater encouragement " in pay, " the different states' nomi- 
nating such officers as are not fit to be shoeblacks," the 
tendency of the states to fall back from regular troops upon 
the militia, " a destructive, expensive, and disorderly mob," 
— all these complaints from the commander-in-chief show 
that there was still no organization of the army. 



232 PART III. 17G3-1797. 

Dictator- Alarmed by the disasters of tlic time, Congi'ess 
ship. resolved, " that General Washington shall be, and 
he is hereby, vested with full, ample, and complete powers " 
to raise, officer, and equip an army. To provide for its 
necessities, he was authorized " to take, wherever he may 
be, whatever he may want for the use of the army, if the in- 
habitants will not sell it, allowing a reasonable price for the 
same." He was also commissioned " to arrest and confine 
persons who refuse to take the continental currency, or are 
otherwise disaffected to the American cause," (December 
27, 1776.) This commission of a dictatorship, the last 
resort of the ineffective Congress, and yet one of that body's 
wisest deeds, was to continue six months. It was after- 
wards renewed in much the same terms. But the powers 
were too dictatorial for such a man as Washington to exer- 
cise fully ; nor did the partial use which he made of them 
effect the object of so great importance in his eyes. The 
Avar went on Ajithout any thing that could be called an actual 
army on the American side. 

i»;,per The want of an army sprang, to a great degree, 

money, from the want of a treasury. Congress, voting all 
sorts of appropriations, had no way of meeting them but by 
continued issues of paper money. These soon began to 
depreciate ; the depreciation required larger amounts to be 
put forth ; and then the larger amounts added to the depre- 
ciation. When the value of the bills had sunk very low, 
an attempt was made to restore the currency by recaUing 
the old issues and sending out new ones ; but these, too, 
depreciated fast. Then lotteries were resorted to, and 
loans, both at home and abroad. The states were called in, 
and taxes raised by them were substituted for the national 
bills. But the embarrassments of the finances were irrepa- 
rable. Every year added to the debt and to the poverty of 
the nation. 



WAR, CONTINUED. 233 

. In tlie midst of trials so various and so profound, 

of Lafay- there was a tlu'ill of hope. It was caused by the 
arrival of a Frenchman, not yet twenty years old, 
who came bearing the sympathies of the old world to tlic 
new. " It was th^ last combat of liberty," wrote Lafayette, 
as he afterwards recalled his early inspirations. While he 
was hastening his departure from France, the news of the 
defeats in New York arrived, to throw the American cause 
into the shade, even in the eyes of the commissioners who 
had been sent to seek supplies in France. They would 
have dissuaded the young Frenchman from his projects. 
" We must be of good cheer," he replied ; " it is in danger 
that I like best to share your fortunes." Escaping the pur- 
suit of the government, who would have prevented a man 
of so high a rank as the Marquis de Lafayette from com- 
promising them with the English by joining the Americans ; 
tearing himself from a brilliant home, and a wife as young 
in years as he, Lafayette crossed the sea in his own vessel, 
and reached the coast of Carolina in safety. He hastened 
to Philadelphia to offer his services to Congress, which, 
more and more wont to be behindhand in its mission, gave 
him a cold welcome through the committee of foreisrn 
'affairs. " The coldness was such," he wrote, " as to amount 
to a rejection ; but without being disconcerted by the man- 
ner of the members, I begged them to return to the hall, 
and to read the following note : ' After the sacrifices which 
I have made, I have the right to demand two favors : one 
is to serve at my own expense, the other to commence as a 
volunteer.' " Congress was touched, and appointed the 
generous Granger a major-general, (July 31, 1777.) H^ 
found no hesitation in the welcome which he received from 
Wasliington on their first meeting?^ " Make my head quar- 
ters your home," was the warm and apjareciative greeting 
from the commander-in-chief to the young major-general. 
20* 



^34 PAKT III. 1763-1797. 

The army and the people imitated "Washington's example, 
and gave their confidence to the noble Frenchman, with joy 
that their cause had attracted such a champion. 
Defeat '^^® Spring of 1777 was marked only by some 

of Bur- predatory excursions from the British side into Con- 
^°^"^' necticut, and from the American into Long Island. 
The summer brought about the evacuation of New Jersey, 
as has been mentioned. But the British retired only to 
strike harder elsewhere. A w^ell-appointed army under 
General Burgoyne was already on its march from Canada 
to Lake Champlain and the Hudson. As this descended, it 
was the plan of the British in New York to ascend the 
Hudson, meeting the other army, and cutting off the com- 
munication between New England and her sister states. 
It was a jiromising scheme, and the first movements in it 
were successful. Burgoyne took Ticonderoga, and swept 
the adjacent country, menacing Northern New York on his 
right, and the Green Mountain region *on his left. General* 
St. Clair, who had evacuated Ticonderoga, could make no 
resistance ; nor was his superior officer, General Schuyler, 
the commander of the northern army, in any position to 
check the advance of the enemy. But Schuyler bore up 
bravely ; and the officers under him did their part. A 
British detachment against Bennington Avas defeated by 
John Stark and his New England militia, (August 16.) 
Fort Schuyler was defended by continental troops, the 
British retiring on the approacli of reenforcements under 
Arnold, (August 22.) Just as these reverses had checked 
the advance of Burgoyne, the gallant Schuyler was ousted 
^f his command to make room for General Gaies, a very 
inferior man, if not a very inferior general. He, profiting 
by the preparations of hi# predecessor, met the British, and 
defeating them in two actions near Saratoga, (September 
19, October 7,) compelled them to surrender. Nearly six 



WAR, CONTINUED. 235 

thousand troops laid down their arms ; but more than twice 
that number were now collected on the American side, 
(October 16.) 

While this triumph was won, losses were still 

IjOss of 

tiie Hud- occurring elsewhere. The advance of the British 
son High- fj.Qj^ ]S[g;v York, after being, strangely delayed, be- 
gan with the capture of the forts which protected 
the Highlands, (October 5-6.) But on proceeding some 
way farther up the river, the enemy found it advisable to 
return to New York. 

The main army of Great Britain was that which 

Loss of -^ 

phiiadci- Washington had to deal with in New Jersey and 
^^ "'^* the vicinity. " If General Howe can be kept at 
bay," wrote the commander-in-chief, " and prevented from 
effecting his principal purposes, the successes of General 
Burgoyne, whatever they may be, must be partial and tem- 
porary." After much uncertainty as to the intentions of 
the British general, he suddenly appeared in the Chesa- 
peake, and landing, prepared to advance against Philadel- 
phia, (August 25.) Washington immediately marched his 
entire army of about eleven thousand to stop the progress 
of the enemy. Notwithstanding the superior number — 
•about seventeen thousand — opposed to him, Washington 
decided ti|at battle must be given for the sake of Philadel- 
phia. After various skirmishes, a general engagement took 
place by the Brandywine, resulting in the defeat of the 
Americans, (September 11.) But so little were they dis- 
pirited, that their commander decided upon immediately 
fighting a second battle, which was prevented only by a 
great storm. Washington then withdrew towards the in- 
terior, and Howe took possession of Philadelphia, (Septem- 
ber 26.) Not yet willing to abandon the city, Washington 
attacked the main division of the British encamped at 
Germantown. At the very moment of victory, a panic 



236 PART III. 1763-1797. 

seized tlip Americans, and they retreated, (October 4.) 
There was no help for Philadelphia ; it was decidedly lost. 
The contrast between the defeat of Burgoyne 
to?s em- ^^^ the loss of Philadelphia was made a matter 
bariass- Qf reproach to the commander-in-chief. Let him 
. make his own defence. " I was left," he says, " to 
fight two battles, in order, if jiossible, to save Pliiladelphia, 
with less numbers than composed the army of my antago- 
nist. . . . Had the same spirit pervaded the people 
of this and the neighboring states, ... as the states 
of New York and New England, ... we might be- 
fore this time have had General Howe nearly in the 
situation of General Burgoyne, with this difference — that 
the former would never have been out of reach of his ships, 
whilst the latter increased his danger every step he took.'* 
More than this, Washington conducted his operations in a 
district where great disaffection to the American cause cut 
off supplies for the army, and intelligence of the enemy. 
To have done what he did, notwithstanding these embar- 
rassments, was greater than a victory. It was felt to be so 
at the time. " Nothing," said the French minister, the 
Count de Vergennes, to the American commissioners in 
France, — " nothing has struck me so much as General 
Washington's attacking and giving battle t# General 
Howe's army : to bring an army, raised within a year, 
to this, promises every thing." 

Loss of ^^^^ enemy were not yet secure in Philadelphia, 
the Deia- the Delaware below the city being still in the pos- 
session of the Americans. Nor did they give it up 
without a struggle. Fort Mercer, upon the Jersey shore, 
was gallantly defended under Lieutenant Colonel Christo- 
pher Greene against a Hessian attack, (October 22 ;) 
but when Fort Mifflin, upon an island in the river, gave 
way after a noble struggle, under Lieutenant Colonel Sam- 



WAR, CONTINUED. 237 

nel Smith, (November 15,) Fort Mercer was evacuated, 
and the Delaware was lost, (November 20.) Aii attack 
meditated by the Americans upon Philadelphia, and one 
attempted by the British upon the American camp at 
Whitemarsh, (December 5-8,) resulted in nothing. The 
operations of 1777 were ended. 

wickes's One enterprise of the year is not to be passed 
cruise, ovcr. Captain "VYickes, of the cruiser Reprisal, 
after distinguishing himself in the West Indies, sailed for 
France in the autumn of 1776. Encouraged by his suc- 
cess in making prizes in the Bay of Biscay, Wickes started 
on a cruise round Ireland in the following summer, (1777.) 
Attended by the Lexington and the Dolphin, the Reprisal 
swept the Irish and the English seas of their menliantmen. 
But on the way to America, the Lexington was captured, 
and the Reprisal, with the gallant Wickes and all his crew, 
was lost on the coast of Newfoundland. It was for the 
navy, of which Wickes was so great an ornament, that a 
national flag had been adopted in the summer of his cruise, 
(June 14.) 

" I see plainly," wrote Lafayette to Washington, 
against ^^ the close of the year, " that America can defend 
Washing- hcrsclf, if proper measures are taken ; but I begin 
to fear that she may be lost by herself and her own 
sons. Wlien I was in Europe, I thought that here almost 
every man was a lover of liberty, and would rather die 
free than live a slave. You can conceive my astonishment, 
when I saw that toryism was as apparently professed as 
whiggigm itself." " We must not," replied Washington, '' in 
so great a contest, expect to meet with nothing but sun- 
shine." These mournful complaints, this cheerful answer, 
referred to an intrigue that had been formed against Wash- 
ington, for the purpose of displacing him from his com- 
mand. Generals Gates and Mifflin, both members of the 



238 PART III. 1763-1797. 

board of wai, lately organized, with Conway, a foreign 
general in the service, were at the head of a cabal, which 
was secretly supported by some members of Congress. 
Had their unworthy plots prevailed, had their anonymous 
letters to the civil authorities, and their underhand appealj 
to military men, succeeded, Washington would have been 
superseded by Gates or by Lee, it was uncertain which, 
both of British birth, both of far more selfishness than 
magnanimity, of far more pretension than power. Gates, 
as we shall read hereafter, met the most utter of all the 
defeats, Lee conducted the most shameful of all the 
retreats, in which the Americans were involved. Happily 
for the struggling nation, these men were not its leaders. 
The c^ill in which they were involved fell asunder ; yet 
without crushing them beneath its ruins. They retained 
their offices and their honors, as well as Washington. 
Army The army was full of quarrels. Sectional jeal- 

quaneis. ousics wcrc activc, the northern man distrusting the 
southern, and the southern the northern. National jeal- 
ousies were equally rife, the American officers opposing 
the foreign, and the foreign officers the American. More 
serious, because more reasonable, were the angry feelings 
excited in the army against Congress, now for its inter- 
ference, and now for its neglect. Much ill will on both 
sides was excited by the question of half pay for life to the 
officers ; it being opposed in Congress, and settled only by 
a compromise of half pay for seven years after the conclu- 
sion of the war. Washington contended with all the intel- 
lectual and moral strength of his nature against Hftd jeal- 
ousy which Congress unhappily entertained of the army. 
'' The prejudices of other countries," as he says, " have 
only gone to them [the troops] in time of peace. . . . 
It is our policy to be prejudiced against them in time of 
war ; though they arc citizens, having all the ties and 
interests of citizens." 



WAR, CONTINUED. 239 

^j.^ The experience of the past twelvemonth had 

suffer- given Washington more confidence in his soldiers. 
He had had time to learn their better points, their 
enthusiasm, their endurance, their devotion. The winter 
■following the loss of Philadelphia was one of cruel suffer- 
ings, and the manner in which they were borne formed a 
new link between the troops and the commander. His 
remonstrances against the jealousies of Congress are accom- 
panied by representations of the agonies of the army. 
" Without arrogance or the smallest deviation from truth, 
it may be said that no history now extant can furnish an 
instance of an army's suffering such hardships as ours has 
done, bearing them with the same patience and fortitude. 
To see men without clothes to cover their nakedness, with- 
out blankets to lie on, without shoes, (for the want of 
which their marches might be traced by the blood from 
their feet,) and almost as often without provisions as with 
tliem ; marching through frost and snow, and at Christmas 
taking up their winter quarters within a day's march of the 
enemy, without a house or hut to cover them, till they 
could be built, and submitting without a murmur, is a proof 
of patience and obedience which, in my opinion, can scarce 
be paralleled." This story, at once so heroic and so sad, is 
dated from Valley Forge. 

Aspect Congress, meanwhile, though finding time to abet 

of Con- the enemies of Washington, and to suspect his faith- 
ful followers, was far from active in promoting 
the interests of the nation. Great changes had taken 
place in the composition of the assembly. Many of the 
earlier members had retired, some to the offices of their 
respective states, some to the field, some to diplomacy, some 
to private life. But a very small number attended the 
sessions ; twenty-five or thirty making what was now con- 
sidered quite a full Congress. " America once had a repre- 
sentation," wrote Alexander Hamilton, one of Washington's 



210 PART III. 1763-1797. 

aids, from head quarters, " that would do honor to any age 
or nation. The present falling off is very alarming and 
dangerous." 

^^^^ The question of foreign alliances had been- started 

with at an early date. It met with very considerable 
opposition. The more earnest spirits thought it 
humihating to court the protection of the European pow- 
ers. They also thought it more likely to increase the dan- 
gers than the resources of the country to be drawgi into 
the interests and the intrigues of the old world. But as 
time passed, and the difficulties of the war increased, the 
tendency to foreign connections grew stronger. Before 
the declaration of independence, Silas Deane was sent 
to France, as an agent, with hints of an alliance. Ere he 
'reached his destination, a secret subsidy had been promised 
to the Americans. Meanwhile a committee of Congress 
was appointed " to prepare a plan of treaties to be proposed 
to foreign powers," (June, 1776.) Their plan being adopt- 
ed, Deane, Benjamin Frankhn, and Arthur Lee, of Vir- 
ginia, were appointed commissioners to France, (Septem- 
ber ;) others being sent to Spain, Prussia, Austria, and 
Tuscany, (December.) The French envoys, amongst 
whom Deane gave place to John Adams, devoted quite 
as much attention to their own disputes as to the negotia- 
tions with which they were intrusted. But the disposition 
of France against her old enemy of England was too 
decided to require much diplomacy on the part of America. 
After a year's delay, a treaty between the French king, 
Louis XVI., and the United States was made, (January 30, 
February 6, 1778,) and ratified, (May 5.) 
^ . , The news of the treaty broke like a thunderbolt 

British '' 

concilia- upon the British ministry. Three years had their 
*'""■ armies, superior both in discipline and in number, 
contended against the so-called rebels ; and what had been 
gained ? A few towns on the seaboard, New Yc^rk, New- 



WAR, CONTINUED. 241 

port, Philadelphia, the islands near New Y«rk, the i^la^d 
on which Newport stands, the lower banks of the Hudson 
and of the Delaware. This was all. Nothing had been, 
nothing, it must have almost seemed, could be, gained ex- 
cept upon the coast ; the interior w^as untenable, if not 
unconquerable. And what had been lost ? Twenty thou- 
sand troops, hundreds of vessels, millions of treasure ; to 
say nothing of the colonial commerce, once so precious, and 
now so worthless. It might w^ell strike the ministry, that 
they must win back their colonies by some other means 
than war, especially if the French w^ere to be parties in tlie 
strife. Accordingly, Lord North laid before Parliament a 
bill renouncing the purpose of taxing America, and another 
providing for commissioners to bring about a reconciliation, 
(February 17.) The bills w^ere passed, and three commis- 
sioners were appointed to act with the military and the 
naval commanders in procuring the submission of the 
United States. To their proposals Congress returned an 
answer on the anniversary of Bunker Hill, refusing to enter 
into any negotiations until the independence of the nation 
was recognized. The commissioners appealed from Con- 
gress to the states ; but in vain. Their mission w^as fruit- 
less, except in proving that the United States would never 
relapse into British colonies. 

Desirous of concentrating his forces before the 

Keen very '--' 

of I'hiia- French appeared in the field. Sir Henry Clinton, 
^ ^' "^' now the British commander-in-chief, evacuated 
Philadelphia, (June 18.) Washington instantly set out 
in pursuit of the enemy. Coming up with them in a few 
days, he ordered General Lee, commanding the van of the 
army, to begin the attack in the morning. Lee began it 
by making a retreat, notwithstanding the remonstrances of 
Lafayette, who had held the command until within a few 
hours. But for Washington's coming up in time to arrest 
21 • 



242 PART III. 1763-1797. 

the flight of the troops under Lee, and to protect the ad- 
vance of his own soldiers, the army would have been lost. 
As it was, he formed his line and drove the British from 
the field of Monmouth, (June 28.) They stole away in the 
night, and reached New York with still more loss from de- 
sertion than from battle. 

At about the same time, a Virginia expedition, 
sion of under the command of Major Clarke, surprised the 
luois. j3j,jf'g|^ garrison at Kaskaskia, (July 4,) and took 
possession of the surrounding villages. The more important 
post of Vincennes was afterwards secured by the aid of its 
French inliabitants.* The country was organized as a part 
of Virginia, under the name of Illinois county. 
,, ^, . Thus the end of the period finds the Americans 

l.nd ot i 

tiie conquerors as well as the British. If the latter have 

New York and Newport, with their neighborhoods, 
the former are in possession of Illinois. The main forces on 
either side are again where they were at the beginning of the 
l)eriod, save that the British are now in New York, and 
the Americans waiting their opportunity to retake the city. 
.'" It is not a little pleasing, nor less wonderful to contem- 
plate," wrote Wasliington from his camp at White Plains, 
" that after two years' manoeuvring, and undergoing the 
strangest vicissitudes that perhaps ever attended any one 
contest since the creation, both armies are brought back to 
the very point they set out from, and that the offending 
party at the beginning is now reduced to the use of the 
spade and pickaxe for defence. The hand of Providence 
has been so conspicuous in all this, that he need be worse 
than an 4nfidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked that 
has not <i;ratitude enough to acknowled<2re his oblijijations." 



*" It was subso{]ucntly surprised by a British party, but recovered by 
Clarke in the beginning of the following year. , 



CHAPTER V. 

War, continued. 
Third Period. 

Charac- The third and last period of the war extends 
teristics. f^Qj^ July, 1778, to January, 1784, five years and a 
half. Its characteristics are, the alliance of the French 
with the Americans, and the concentration of the more 
important operations in the Southern States. These points, 
it is to be noted, are precisely the opposite of those which 
characterized the preceding period. 

The first minister of France to the United States, 

Failure to ' 

recover M. Gerard, came accompanied by a fleet and army, 
^^^°^ ■ under D'Estaing, (July.) "Unforeseen and unfa- 
vorable circumstances," as Washington wrote, " lessened the 
importance of the French services in a great degree." In 
the first place, the arrival was just late enough to miss the 
opportunity of surprising the British fleet in the Delaware, 
not to mention the British army on its retreat to New York. 
In the next place, the French vessels proved to be of too 
great draught to penetrate the channel and cooperate in an 
attack upon New York. Thus disappointing and disap- 
pointed, D'Estaing engaged in an enterprise against New- 
port, still in British hands. It proved another failure. 
But not through the French alone ; the American troops 
that were to enter the island at the north being greatly be- 
hindhand. The same day that they took their place, under 

(243) 



244 PART III. 1763-1797. 

Sullivan, Greene, and Lafayette, the French left theirs at 
the lower end of the island in order to meet the British fleet 
arriving from New York, (August 10.) A severe storm 
prevented more than a partial engagement ; but D'Estaing 
returned to Newport only to plead the injuries received in 
the gale as compelling his retirement to Boston for repairs. 
The orders of the French government had been peremptory 
tliat in case of any damage to the fleet it should put into 
port at once. So far was D'Estaing from avoiding action 
on personal grounds, that when Lafayette hurried to Bos- 
ton to persuade his countrymen to return, the commander 
offered to serve as a volunteer until the fleet should be refit- 
ted. The Americans, however, talked of desertion and of 
inefficiency, — so freely, indeed, as to aflPront their faitliful 
Lafayette. At the same tiipe, large numbers of tlicm imi- 
tated the very course which they censured, by deserting 
their own army. The remaining forces retreated from their 
lines to the northern end of the island, and, after an en- 
gagement, withdrew to the mainland, (August 30.) It 
required all the good offices of Lafayette, of Washington, 
and of Congress, to keep the peace between the Americans 
and their allies. D'Estaing, soothed by the language of 
tliose whom he most respected, was provoked, on the other 
hand, by the hostility of the masses, both in the army and 
amongst the people. Collisions between his men and the 
Bostonians kept up his disgust ; and, when his fleet was re- 
paired, he sailed for the West Lidies, (November.) 

The summer and autumn passed away without 
fimiiL ai^y further exertions of moment upon the American 
dian mv- gj^jg^ Qu the part of the- British, there Avas nothing 
''^^^' attempted tliat would not have been far better unat- 
temj)t('d. Marauding parties from Newport went against 
New Bedford and Fairhaven. Others from New York 
went against Little Egg Harbor. Tories and Indians — 



WAR, CONTINUED. 245 

• 
" a collection of banditti," as they were rightly styled by 
Washington, descended from the northern country to wreak 
massacre at Wyoming and at Cherry Valley. The war 
seemed to be assuming a new character: it was one of 
ravages unworthy of any cause, and most unworthy of such 
a cause as the British professed to be. 

Affairs were at a low state amongst the Ameri- 

Decline of ^ a • >j 

American cans. " The common interests of America, wrote 
''^'''''^' Washington at the close of 1778, "are mouldering 
and sinking into irretrievable ruin." Was he who had 
never despaired at length despairing ? There was reason 
to do so. " K I were to be called upon," he said, " to draw 
a picture of the times and of men, from what I have seen, 
heard, and in part know, I should in one word say that idle- 
ness, dissipation, and extravagance seem to have laid fast 
hold upon most of them ; that speculation, peculation, and 
an insatiable thirst for riches seem to have got the better 
of every other consideration, and almost of every order of 
men ; that party disputes and personal quarrels are the 
great business of the day ; whilst the momentous concerns 
of an empire, a great and accumulating debt, ruined finances, 
depreciated money, and want of credit, which, in its conse- 
quences, is the want of every thing, are but secondary con- 
siderations, and postponed from day to day, from week to 
week, as if our affairs wore the most promising aspect. 
After drawing this picture, which from my soul I believe to 
be a true one, I need not repeat to you that I am alarmed, 
and wish to see my countrymen roused." This gloomy 
sketCTi is of the government — Congress and the various 
officials at Philadelphia. What was. true of the govern- 
ment was true of the people, save only the diminishing 
rather than increasing class to which we have frequently 
referred, as constituting the strength of the nation. 

A border warfare had been carried on during two suc- 
21* 



246 PART III. 1763-1797. 

Loss of cessive summers, (1777-78,) between East Florida 
Georgia. ^^^^ Georgia. The British authorities sent parties 
from their garrisons, on one side, and on the otlier, the 
Americans, chiefly Georgians and CaroHnians, mustered 
their mihtia. Nothing, however, but alarm and bloodshed 
had been accomplished, when, at the close of 1778, a serious 
invasion of Georgia was planned by the British commander. 
Twenty-five hundred troops from New York, under the 
command of Lieutenant Colonel Campbell, landed near Sa- 
vannah. Hardly nine hundred Americans, under General 
Howe, were there to oppose them ; and, after a short en- 
counter, the town was taken, (December 29.) A tew days 
later, the only other strong place upon the seaboard. Sun- 
bury, surrendered to a force of two thousand British, ad- 
vancing, under General Prevost, from Florida. Prevost, 
taking command of the united forces of the British, sent 
Colonel Campbell against Augusta. The expedition, suc- 
cessful at first, was soon so threatened by the operations of 
various partisans, and by those of General Lincoln, the 
commander of the continental troops, that Campbell evacu- 
ated Augusta after a fortnight's possession. Prevost then 
advanced from Savannah. An American force, under 
General Ashe, was routed at Brier Creek, and Georgia was 
lost, (March 4, 1779.) A few months later, Sir James 
Wright, the royal governor at the beginning of the war, 
returned and set up the provincial government once more. 
Defence of ^^^^ couqucror of Georgia aspired to become the 
Charles- couqucror of Carolina. With chosen troops, and a 
numerous body of Indians, Prevost set out a^nst 
Charleston. He was met before that town by the legion 
under Count Pulaski, a Pole who had been in the American 
service for nearly two years ; but Pulaski's men were scat- 
tered, and Prevost pressed on. The militia, assembled for 
the defence of the place, were under the orders of Governor 



WAR, CONTINUED. 247 

Rutledge ; the continental troops under those of Charleston's 
earlier defender, Moultrie. But the disparity of forces was 
fearful, and proposals for surrender were under considera- 
tion, when the approach of General Lincohi with liis army 
compelled the British to retire, (May 12.) It was more 
than a month, however, before they left the adjacent coun- 
try. They then withdrew to Savannah and St. Augustine. 
The Americans were by no means disposed to 

Failure to . • , , n r-<. • r^ ^ 

recover acquicscc m the loss 01 Georgia. On the reappear- 
savau- ryxiQQ of the Frcncli fleet, under D'Estaini^, after a 

nah. ^ 

successful cruise in the West Indies, he consented to 
join General Lincoln in an attack on Savannah, (Septem- 
ber.) But he was too apprehensive of being sui-prised by 
the British fleet, as well as too desirous of getting back to 
the larger operations in the West Indies, to be a useful ally. 
The impatience of D'Estaing precipitated an assault upon 
the town, in which Pulaski fell, and both the French and 
the Americans suffered great loss, (October 9.) The 
French sailed southward ; the Americans retired to the inte- 
rior, leaving Savannah to the enemy. 

Previously to the events last described, Virginia 

Invasion '' 

ofvir- had been, invaded. An expedition from New lork, 
^'"'^' landing at Portsmouth, plundered that town and all 
the neighboring country. N«)t a blow was struck against 
the foe. But booty rather than conquest being their ob- 
ject, they withdrew, (May.) 

The operations in the north during the year were 

Operations ^ * i • 

in the of altogether inferior importance. As the mam 
'''''^^'- body of the British continued at New York, Wash- 
ington kept his small army in that vicinity. But he had no 
plans of decisive action. On making his preparations at 
the beginning of the year, he resolved upon an offensive 
course towards the Indians of Western New York, wdiose 
repeated hostilities, in conjunction with the British, were 



248 PART III. 1763-1797. 

chastised by an American expedition under General Sulli- 
van, (August and Sei)tember.) In relation to tlie British, 
Washington could hold only a defensive attitude. Yet, 
when Stony Point and Verplanck Point were taken, to the 
great peril of the Highland fortifications, as well as to the 
great interruption of intercourse with New England, AVaih- 
ington decided upon striking a blow. A gallant party, 
under the gallant Wayne, surprised the strong works which 
the British had constructed at Stony Point, (July 15,) and, 
though obliged to evacuate them, destroyed them, and re- 
covered the Hudson, that is, the part which had been 
recently taken from the Americans. The fortification of 
West Point was undertaken, as an additional safeguard. In 
other directions, beyond the immediate reach of Washing- 
ton, although never beyond his interest and his influence, the 
movements of the year were still less effective. Connecti- 
cut was invaded by a British force from New York, 
ands great was the devastation, yet not without resistance, 
(Jidy.) At the same period, a force from Massachusetts 
assailed a post which the British had taken on the Penob- 
scot, out with great loss. Some months later, apprehen- 
sions of the French fleet induced the British commander 
to draw in his outposts on the Hudson and to evacuate 
New})ort, (October.) Theses movements, effected without 
loss, or even collision, were the only ones of any strong 
bearing upon the issue of the war. 

Jones's Far away, upon the coasts of Great Britain itself, 

cruises. ^\^q ^^^^^ was now extended. Following in the track 
of the brave Wickes, John Paul Jones sailed in the Ranger 
from France to the coast of England and Scotland, entering 
Whitehaven, where he took the fortifications and fired the 
shipping of the fort. This was in the spring of 1778. In 
the spring of the following year, Jones being then in 
France, it was proposed that he should take the naval com- 



WAR, CONTINUED. 249 

mand of an expedition in which Lafayette was to be the 
general-in-chief, the object being nothing less than the inva- 
sion of England. This project failing, Jones got to sea in 
summer, with a squadi*on of seven sail, from a French port. 
Although much embarrassed by the insubordinate conduct 
of one of his chief officers, Jones pursued his cruise with 
great success along the Scotch coast. Thence descending 
on the eastern side of England, he encountered a fleet of 
merchantmen, under convoy of two vessels of war. The 
two were at once engaged — the larger, the Serapis, by 
Jones's Bonhomme Richard, and the smaller, the Countess 
of Scarborough, by the Pallas, under Captain Cottineau. 
It was a fearful and a remarkable action. Jones was ex- 
posed not only to the fire of his antagonist, but to that of one 
of his own vessels, from the treachery or the incompetency 
of its commander ; and so completely battered was his ship, 
the Bonhomme Richard, that it went down sixteen hours 
after the surrender of the Serapis. The other British ves- 
sel also surrendered, (September 23, 1779.) The brave 
victor made his way safely to Holland.* 
Spain in The War was gathering fresh combatants. Spain, 
the war. after vainly offering her mediation between Great 
Britain and France, entered into the lists on the side of the 
latter power, (June, 1779.) There was no thought of the 
United States in the transaction. John Jay, hastily ap- 
pointed minister to Spain, (September,) could not obtain a 
recognition of American independence. But the United 
States hailed the entrance of % new nation into the arena. 
It was so much against their enemy, however little it was 
for themselves. 

The beginning of 1780 beheld large detachments from 
the British at New York, under Chnton, the commander-in- 

* He did not return to America till the beginning of 1781. 



250 ' PART III. 1763-1797. 

Loss of ^^^^^^ himself, on their way southward. Charleston, 
South twice already assailed in vain, was the first object. 
The siege began with five thousand British against 
fifteen hundred Americans, (April 11 ;) the numbers after- 
wards increasing to eight thousand on the British side and 
three thousand on the American. The naval forces of the 
attack and the defence were still more unequal. Lincoln, 
yet in command of the southern army, made a brave resist- 
ance, but was of course overpowered. The loss of Charles- 
ton (May 12) was followed by the loss of the state, or the 
greater part of it. Three expeditions, the chief under Lord 
Cornwallis, penetrated into the interior without meeting any 
repulse. So complete was the prostration of South Caro- 
lina, that Clinton returned to New York, leaving Cornwallis 
to retain and to extend the conquest which had been made, 
(June.) 

Failure to ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^* '^^^^ partisans of South 
recover Carolina, like those of Georgia, held out in the 
upper country, whence they made frequent descents 
upon the British posts. The names of Thomas Sumter 
and Francis Marion recall many a chivalrous enterprise. 
Continental troops and militia were marching from the north 
under De Kalb, the companion of Lafayette in his voyage, 
and under Gates, who assumed the command in North Car- 
olina, (July.) Thence entering South Carolina in the 
hope of recovering it from its conquerors. Gates encountered 
Cornwallis near Camden, and, although much superior in 
numbers, was routed, — the^^iilitia of North Carolina and 
Virginia leaving the few continental troops to bear the 
brunt of the battle in vain. The brave De Kalb fell a sac- 
rifice upon the field, (August 16.) Two days afterwards, 
Sumter was surprised by the British cavalry under Lieu- 
tenant Colonel Tarleton, and his party scattered. Marion 
was at the same time driven into North Carolina. 



WAR, COJ^TINUED. 251 

., , It seemed as if the south were ffiven up to the 

Abandon- *^ ^ 

mentof foe. So Httlc excrtioii to defend it was made 
1- -j^ ^Yi^ other portions of the country, that a rumor 
o-ained o-round of an intention to abandon South Caro- 
Hna and Georgia aUogether. The French minister, De 
La Luzerne, wrote home of still greater sacrifices in con- 
templation. He mentions the possibility of a proposal from 
the British that the other states should be acknowledged to 
be independent if the Carolinas, both North and South, and 
Georgia, were surrendered. Such a proposition was never 
made; but it must have been thought of- and talked about. 
Such, too, were the sectional divisions in and out of Con- 
gress, that there were some to whom the abandonment of 
the south wore no look of horror or of wrong. 
Its de- Fortunately there were others, and a far greater 

fence. number, who never hesitated at the necessity of de- 
fending their southern brotliers. Washington, still on the 
watch about New York, turned anxious glances to the oper- 
ations at the south. " The affairs of the Southern States,'* 
he wrote to the president of Congress, " seem to be so ex- 
ceedingly disordered, and their resources so much exhausted, 
that whatever may be undertaken there must chiefly depend 
on the means carried from hence. If these fail, we shall be 
condemned to a disgraceful and fatal inactivity." When 
Gates proved incompetent to the work, Washington ap- 
pointed his best officer, Major General Greene, to save the 
invaded states and to keep the country whole, (October.) 
Darkness ^^ ^^^^ ^ dark time, even in the north. Washing- 
in the tou had looked forward, at the opening of the year, 

north. . .111 n T • 1 ^ 

to an active campaign ; but the hopes ot his heart 
died out one by one. Lafayette, returning from a year's 
absence in France, where he had been unwearied in uphold- 
ing the interests of America, announced the conaing pf an 
armament, both land and naval, frona his country. This 



252 PART III. 1763-1797. 

arrived at Newport, (July,) and there it remained dur- 
ing the rest of the year, blockaded by a British fleet. 
AVashington's plans of an attack with the French upon New 
York fell through, to his great disappointment. What the 
French thought of the state of things may be gathered from 
a despatch of their commander, the Count de Rochambeau, 
to the government. "Upon our arrival here," he writes, 
" the country was in consternation. The paper money had 
fallen to sixty for one. ... I landed with my staff 
without troops ; nobody appeared in the streets ; those at 
the windows looked sad and depressed. . . . Send us 
troops, ships, and money, but do not depend upon this peo- 
ple or upon their means." * It was soon afterwards that 
Washington wrote, " If either the temper or the resources 
of the country will not admit of an alteration, we may ex- 
pect soon to be reduced to the humiliating condition of 
seeing the cause of America in America upheld by foreign 
arms." "But I give it as my opinion," he wrote again, 
" that a foreign loan is indispensably necessary to the con- 
tinuance of the war." The autumn came, and Benedict 
Arnold, one of the officers upon whom the military fortunes 
of the nation had most depended, all but succeeded in 
betraying West Point to the enemy, (September.) He 
escaped, leaving Major Andre, with whom he Jiad been 
treating, to die the death of a spy. A descent, partly of 
British, partly of loyalist Americans, and partly of Indians, 
surprised the fortresses and devastated the fields of Northern 
New York, (October.) Disaster was succeeding disaster, 
when Congress, listening to the exhortations of the com- 
mander-in-chief, again addressed itself to the organization 
of an army. It proposed enlistments of soldiers to continue 



* Mr. Sparks's translation, in Washington's "Writings, vol. vii. pp. 

504-500. 



/ 
WAR, CONTINUED. 253 

during the Avar, antl lialf pay of officers to continue after- 
wards and for life; but it was only a proposal. More effec- 
tive were the exertions of the women of Pennsylvania, 
under the guidance of Mrs. Reed, the wife of the Pennsyl- 
vanian president, and those of New Jersey, led by Mrs. 
Dickinson, who raised generous subscriptions * to meet the 
necessities of the American army. "The spirit that ani- 
mated the members of your association," wrote Washington 
to the ladies of Philadelphia on the death of Mrs. Reed, 
" entitles them to an equal place with any who have pre- 
ceded them in the walk of female patriotism. It embellishes 
the American character with a new trait." 
li-htiu Cornwallis, conqueror of South Carolina, pre- 
tiie pared to march upon North Carolina. To secure 

the upper country, he detached a trusted officer, 
Major Ferguson, with a small band of regular troops and 
loyalists, in addition to whom large accessions were soon 
obtained from the tory part of the population. These 
recruits, like all of the same stamp, were full of hatred 
towards their countrymen on the American side ; and fierce 
were the ravages of the party as Ferguson marched on. 
Aroused by tlie agony of the country, a considerable num- 
ber of volunteers gathered, under various officers — Colonel 
Campbell, of Virginia, Colonels Cleaveland, Sevier, and 
Shelby, of North Carolina, and others. Nine hundred chosen 
men hastened to overtake the enemy, whom they found en- 
camped in security on King's Mountain, near the frontier of 
South Carolina. The Americans never fought more resolute- 
ly. Ferguson was killed, and his surviving men surrendered 
at discretion, (October 7.) The march of Cornwallis was 
instantly checked ; instead of advancing, he fell back. Nay, 

* In paper money, upwards of $300,000 ; but in specie fi-om $5000 to 
#7000. 

22 



254 PART III. 1763-1797. 

more ; a force which had been sent from New York to estab- 
lish itself in Virginia was summoned by Cornwallis to his aid. 
The year had been marked by important move- 
in the ments in Europe. The Empress Catharine of Rus- 
'^^^' sia put forth a declaration of independence, as it 
may be styled, in behalf of the neutral states, by proclaim- 
ing their riglit to carry on their commerce in time of war 
exactly as in time of peace, i^rovided they conveyed no con- 
traband articles. This doctrine was wholly at variance 
with the rights of search and of blockade, as asserted by 
England in relation to neutral nations. But it prevailed ; 
and a league, by the name of the Armed Neutrality, soon 
comprehended nearly the whole of Europe. Little, how- 
ever, was effected by it ; the Empress of Russia herself 
called it her Armed Nullity. Yet the circle of hostility 
against England went on Avidening. On the accession of 
Ilolhind to the Armed Neutrahty, Great Britain, having 
just before captured a minister to the Dutch from the United 
States, — Henry Laurens, of South Carolina, — declared war 
at the close of 1780. But Holland no more became an 
ally of the United States than Spain had done. 
Final ^^^® "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual 

adoption Union between the States," adopted by Congress 
Confed- towards the end of 1777, were still in abeyance. 
eration. 'pj-^^ statcs to whom they wcre sent for approval had 
found many objections to the plan of union. Some of the 
larger states disliked the riglit of the smaller states to an 
equal vote with themselves in Congress. The smaller op- 
posed the claims of the larger to the unoccupied lands of the 
country, alleging that what was won by common exertion 
should be turned to common advantage. One state — New 
J(3rscy — had the wisdom to object that Congress, or the gen- 
eral government, was not endowed with sufficient power, 
especially on the matter of regulating the trade of the couu' 



WAR, CONTINUED 255 

try. These and other difficulties were but slowly sur- 
mounted. When all the rest had been removed, the ques- 
tion of the unoccupied lands was still a point upon which 
the articles hung motionless. The magnanimity with which 
this last obstacle w^as removed is a bright episode in the 
history of the times. New Jersey was the first of the 
smaller states to come into the Confederacy, relying upon 
the justice of her more powerful sisters, (November 20, 
1778.) First of the landed states to cede her claims for 
the general welfare was New York, (February 19, 1780.) 
Her generosity, and the confidence of such states as New 
Jersey, induced the hitherto reluctant Maryland to waive 
her objections and sign the Articles. The thirteen were 
then complete, (March 1, 1781.) 

Its iuef- Congratulations were general, and well founded, 
ficiency. qq f.^j. ^^ ^\^^j j-elatcd to the closer union of the 
states. But nothing had been gained on the score of a na- 
tional government. On the contrary, something had been 
lost ; the powers of Congress being rather diminished than 
increased under the Articles of Confederation. Before their 
adoption, a majority of states decided a question ; now, nine 
out of the tliirteen must be united to carry any measure. 
The half pay for hfe, for instance, that had been voted to 
the officers of the army, was reconsidered and refused by 
the Congress of the Confederation, for want of nine states to 
vote for its fulfilment. All this had been foreboded and 
lamented. " A nominal head, which at present is but an- 
other name for Congress, will no longer do," — thus wrote 
Washington. His aide-de-camp, Hamilton, wrote that Con- 
gress must be clothed with proper authority, " by resuming 
and exercising the discretionary powers originally vested 
in them," or " by calling immediately a convention of all 
the states, with full authority to conclude finally upon a 
general confederation," (1780.) Just before the adoption 



256 PART III. 1763-1797. 

of the Articles, the legislature of New York presented a 
formal memorial to Congress, saying, " We shall not pre- 
sume to give our opinion on the question whether Congress 
has adequate powers or not. But we will without hesita- 
tion declare that, if they have not, they ought to have them, 
and that we stand ready on our part to confer them." If 
all these things could be said before the ratification of the 
Confederation, they could of course be repeated with even 
greater truth afterwards. A specimen of the inefficiency 
of the government occurs in relation to a proposal of import 
duties to be laid by Congress. Rhode Island refused to 
grant the necessary power to the government, and Virginia, 
after granting it, retracted it, (December, 1782.) 
T, r In the mean time events were hastenino; to a crisis 

Defence o 

of the in the field. General Greene, taking command of 
** the southern army, with several American officers 
and the Pole Kosciuszko in his train, determined to save 
the Carolinas. He was confirmed in his purpose by his 
brigadier. General Morgan, who, distinguished in various 
actions, won a decisive victory over Tarleton at the Cow- 
pens, in South Carolina, (January 17.) Two months later, 
Greene and Morgan having retreated in the interval, the 
main bodies of the armies, British and American, met at 
Guilford, in North Carolina, (March 15.) Both retired 
from the field ; the Americans first, but the British with the 
greater loss. Cornwallis withdrew towards Wilmington, 
]>ursued by Greene, who presently dashed into South Caro- 
Ihia. There he was opposed by Lord Rawdon, whoat once 
defeated him in an engagement at Ilobkirk's Hill, near 
Camden, (April 25.) This was a cruel blow to Greene's 
hopes of surprising South Carolina. "This distressed 
country," he wrote, " cannot struggle much longer M'ithout 
more effectual support." But it Avas not in Greene's nature 
lo despair. AYhile he advanced against the stronghold of 



WAR, CONTINUED. 257 

Ninety-Six, in South Carolina, he detached a body of troops 
under Lieutenant Colonel Lee to join a band of Carolinians 
and Georgians who were besieging Augusta. The result 
was the surrender of that town, (June 5.) But the fort at 
Ninety-Six held out against repeated assaults, and Greene 
was obliged to retire before the superior force which Raw- 
don was leading to raise the siege, (June 19.) For a time, 
tlie war subsided ; then Greene reappeared, and fought the 
action of Eutaw Springs. He lost the field of battle, (Sep- 
tember 8 ;) but the British, under Colonel Stuart, were so 
much weakened as to give way, and retreat' precipitately 
towards Charleston. Thus from defeat to defeat, without 
the intermission of a single victory, in the common sense, 
Greene had now marched, now retreated, in such a brave 
and brilliant way, as to force the enemy back upon the sea- 
board. The successes of the militia and of the partisan 
corps had been equally effective. All the upper country, 
not only of the Carolinas, but of Georgia, was once more 
in the American possession. 

The cen- ^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^ whcu tilings wcre darkest at the 
trai states south, greater perils arose at the centre of the 
'"^'^"°^^* country. Virginia was invaded in the first days 
of 1781 by a formidable force, chiefly of loyalists under the 
traitor Arnold. He took Richmond, but only to leave it 
and retire to Portsmouth, where he bade defiance both to 
tlie American militia and the French vessels from Newport, 
(January.) Soon after, two thousand British troops Avere 
sent from New York, under General Phillips, with direc- 
tions to march up the Chesapeake against Maryland and 
Pennsylvania, (March.) This plan embraced the twofold 
idea of cutting off the Carolinas from all assistance, and 
of laying the central states equally prostrate. At about 
the same time, Cornwallis, baffled by Greene in North 
Carolma, set out to join the forces assembled in Virginia. 
22* 



258 PART III. 1763-1797. 

They, meanwhile, had penetrated the interior, swept the 
plantations and the towns, and taken Petersburg, (April.) 
The arrival of Cornwallis completed the array of the 
enemy, (May.) The very heart of the country was in 
danger. 

" Our affairs," wrote Washington before the con- 

centration 01 the enemy in Virgmia, " are brought 
to an awful crisis." " Why need I run into details," he 
wrote again, " when it may be declared in a word, that we 
are at the end of our tether, and that now or never our 
deliverance must come ? " " But we must not despair," he 
urged, as dangers accumulated ; " the game is yet in our 
own hands ; to play it well is all Ave have to do, and I trust 
the experience of error will enable us to act better in 
future. A cloud may yet pass over us, individuals may be 
ruined, and the country at large, or particular states, under- 
go temporary distress ; but certain I am that it is in our 
power to bring the war to a happy conclusion." 
American "^^^ nation was far from being up to the emer- 
prepara- gcucy. A Spirit of wcarincss and selfishness was 

prevailing among the people. The army, ill disci- 
plined and ill paid, was exceedingly restless. Troops of 
the Pennsylvania and New Jersey hues had broken out 
into actual revolt at the beginning of the year. The gov- 
ernment was still ineffective, the Confederation feeble. Con- 
gress inert, not to say broken down. When one reads that 
this body stood ready to give up the Mississippi to Spain, 
nay, to waive the express acknowledgment of American 
independence as an indispensable preliminary to negotia- 
tions with Great Britain, — when one reads these things, he 
may well wonder that there were any preparations to meet 
the exigencies of the times. The German Baron de Steu- 
ben, collecting troops in Virginia at the time of the inva- 
sion, was afterwards joined by Lafayette, whose troops had 



WAR, CONTINUED. 259 

been clad on their march at his expense. By sea, the 
French fleet was engaged in defending the coasts against 
the invader. It seemed as if the stranger were the only 
defender of Virginia and of America. But on the south- 
ern border was Greene, with his troops and his partisan 
allies. At the north was Washington, planning, acting, 
summoning troops from the states, and the French from 
Newport, to aid him in an attack upon New York, as the 
stronghold of the foe, until, convinced of the impossibility 
of securing the force required for such an enterjirise, he 
resolved upon taking the command in Virginia, (August 
14.) Thither he at once directed the greater part of his 
scanty troops, as well as of the French. The allied army 
was to be strengthened by the French fleet, and not merely 
by that of Newport, but by another and a larger fleet from 
the West Indies. 
,. „ . The British under Cornwallis were now within 

Defeat 

of Corn- fortified lines at Yorktown and Gloucester, (August 
1-22.) There they had retired under orders from 
the commander-in-chief at New York, who thought both 
that post and the Virginian conquests in danger from the 
increasing activity of the Americans, and especially the 
French. Little had been done in the field by Cornwallis. 
He had been most gallantly watched, and even pursued 
by Lafayette, whose praises for skill, as well as heroism, 
rang far and wide. Washington and the French General 
Rochambeau joined Lafayette at Williamsburg, (Septem- 
ber 14.) A great fleet under Count de Grasse was already 
in the Chesapeake. As soon as the land forces arrived, 
the siege of Yorktown was begun, (September 28.) The 
result was certain. Washington had contrived to leave Sir 
Henry Clinton impressed wdth the idea that New York was 
still the main object. Sir Henry, therefore, thought of no 
reenforcements for Cornwallis, until they were too late, 



260 PART III. 1763-1797. 

until, indeed, they were out of the question in consequence 
of the naval superiority of the French. In fact, an expe- 
dition to lay waste the eastern part of Connecticut was 
occupying Clinton's mind. He placed the loyalists and the 
Hessians despatched for the purpose under the traitor Ar- 
nold, who succeeded in destroying New London, (Septem- 
ber.) Thus there were but seven thousand five hundred 
British at Yorktown to resist nine thousand Americans and 
seven thousand French, besides the numerous fleet. In 
less than three weeks, Cornwallis asked for terms, (October 
17,) and two days afterwards surrendered. 

The blow was decisive. The United States were 
transported. Government, army, people were for 
once united, for once elevated to the altitude of those noble 
spirits, who, like Washington, had sustained the nation 
until the moment of victory. " The play is over," wrote 
Lafayette, " and the fifth act is just finished." " O God ! " 
exclaimed the English prime minister, on hearing of the 
event. " It is all over — all over ! " 

It was Washington's earnest desire to avail of 

Prospects. 

the French fleet in an attack on Charleston. De 
Grasse refused. Then Washington urged him to transport 
troops to Wilmington. But De Grasse alleged his engage- 
ments in the West Lidies, and sailed thither. The French 
under Rochambeau went into winter quarters at Williams- 
burg, while the Americans marched, a part to reenforce the 
southern army, and a part to the various posts in the north. 
Prospects were uncertain. It was evident that the war 
was approaching its close, but none could tell how nearly. 
Washington implored his countrymen to be on the alert. 
Again and again ho* rebuked the inaction into which they 
were falling, as if their work was done. The British still 
held their post by the Penobscot. They were still strong 
at New York. Wilmington was evacuated by them ; but 



WAR, CONTINUED. 261 

Charleston, the chief town of the south, and Savannah, 
remained in their hands. Lafayette wrote from France, 
whither he went at the close of the year, that '^ the evacu- 
ation of New York and Charleston are as far from British 
intentions as the evacuation of London." 

It turned out differently. A vote of Parliament 

Evacua- , *i 

tion of that the king be requested to bring the war to a 
close, (February 27, 1782,) led to a change of 
ministry. Determining to recognize the independence of 
the United States, and to concentrate hostilities against the 
European powers, the new ministry sent out Sir Guy 
Carleton as commander-in-chief, with instructions to evacu- 
ate New York, Charleston, and Savannah ; in a word, the 
entire seaboard. Savannah was evacuated in the summer, 
(July 11,) Charleston in the early winter, (December 14.) 
It was the result of past campaigns, not of any present one. 
Tlie Americans were without armies, without supplies, at 
least without such as were indispensable for any active 
operations. When the French under Rochaipbeau reached 
the American camp on the Hudson in the autumn, they 
passed between two lines of troops clothed and armed by 
subsidies from France. It was a touching, tribute of grati- 
tude, and an equally touching confession of weakness. All 
but a single corps of the French embarked at the close of 
the year. The remainder followed in the ensuing spring. 
Peace was then decided upon. It had been 

The Eu- - - , , - ' 1 ' T 1 

ropean brought about by other operations besides those 
combat- -^yiiich liavc bccu described. The contest in Amer- 

ants. 

ica, indeed, was but an episode in the extended 
warfare of the period. Upon the sea, the fleets of Britain 
hardly encountered an American man-of-war. The oppos- 
ing squadrons were those of France and Spain and Hol- 
land. By land, the French opposed the British in the 
East Indies, upon the coast of Africa, and in the West 



262 PART III. 1763-1797. 

Indies. They also aided the Spaniards to conquer Minor- 
ca, in the Mediterranean, and to assail, but in vain, the 
great stronghold of Gibraltar. The Spanish forces were 
also active in the Floridas. Holland, alone of the Euro- 
pean combatants, made no stand against Great Britain. In 
the Indies, both East and West, and in South American 
Guiana, the Dutch were immense losers. What was gained 
frym them, however, did not compensate for what was lost 
to others by the British. The preliminaries of peace, at 
first with America, (November 30,) and afterwards with 
the European powers, (January 20, 1783,) were signed to 
the general contentment of Great Britain, of Europe, and 
of America. 

Cessation Hostilitics soou ccascd. In America, Sir Guy 
of hostiii- Carleton proclaimed their cessation on the part of 

the British, (April 8.) Washington, with the con- 
sent of Congress, made proclamation to the same eifect. 
By a singular coincidence, the day on which hostilities were 
stayed was Jjie anniversary of that on which they were 
begun at Lexington, eight years before, (April 19.) 
Release Mcasurcs, already proposed by the British com- 
of pris- mander, were at once taken on both sides for the 

release of prisoners. The treatment and the ex- 
change of these unfortunate men had given rise to great 
difficulties during the war. Even where actual cruelty did 
not exist, etiquette and policy were too strong for humanity. 
The horrors of the British jails and prison ships were 
bywords, and when tlieir unhappy victims were offered in 
exchange for the better treated prisoners of the other side, 
the Americans hesitated to receive them. The troops that 
surrendered at Saratoga, on condition of a free passage to 
Great Britain, were detained, in consequence of various 
ol)jcctions, to be freed only l)y desertions and slow ex- 
changes after the lapse of years. In short, the prisoners 



WAR, CONTINUED. 263 

of both armies seem to have been regarded in the light of 
troublesome burdens, alike by those who had captured 
them and those from whom they were captured. Individ- 
ual benevolence alone lights up the gloomy scene. At 
the close of the war, we find Congress, on the recommen- 
dation of Washington, voting its thanks to Reuben Harvey, 
a merchant of Cork, for his humane succors to the Amer- 
ican prisoners in Ireland. 

Treaties Negotiations for peace met with many interrup- 
of peace, tions. So far as the United States were concerned, 
the questions of boundary, of the St. Lawrence and New- 
foundland fisheries, of indemnity to British creditors, as 
well as to American loyalist^ were all knotty points ; the 
more so, that the four negotiators — Franklin, John Jay, 
John Adams, and Henry Laurens — were by no means 
agreed upon the principles by which to decide them. 
Some of the envoys, moreover, were possessed of the 
idea that France was disposed to betray her American 
allies ; and so strong was this feeling that the consent of 
tlie French government, the point which had been agreed 
upon as the essential condition of making peace, was not 
even aslied before the signature of the preliminaries al- 
ready mentioned. It Avas before the preliminaries were 
signed that all these embarrassments appeared ; and they 
continued afterwards. At length, however, definitive treaties 
were signed at Paris and at Versailles between Great 
Britain and her foes, (September 3.) * America obtained 
her independence, with all the accompanying privileges 
and possessions which she desired. She agreed, however, 
against her will, to make her debts good, and to recommend 
the loyalists, whose property had been confiscated, to the 
favor of the state governments. Spain recovered the Flor- 

* The treaty with Holland was not concluded until the following spring. 



264 - PART III. 1763-1797. 

idas. The other terms of the treaties — the cessions on one 
side and on the other — do not belong to our history. The 
treaty between Great Britain and the United States was 
formally confirmed by Congress at the beginning of the 
following year, (January 14, 1784.) 

After lono; delays, the British withdrew from 

Evacua- ° •' ^ 

tion of their post on the Penobscot. New York w^as evac- 
the north. ^^^^^^ (Novcmber 25, 1783,) and ten days later, 
the remaining forces embarked from Staten Island and 
Long Island, (December 4-6.) A ' few western posts 
excepted, the territory of the United States was free. 

The disposal of the American army had long 
in the heen a serious quest^pn. A year before, the army 
American j^^^j addressed Conojress on the subject of the pay, 

army. '^ *^ 

then months, and even years, in arrears, (Decem- 
ber, 1782.) Congress was powerless. The army was 
incensed. When, therefore, anonymous addresses to the 
officers were issued from the camp at Newburg, proposing 
the alternative of redress or of desertion,* the worst con- 
sequences appeared inevitable. The more so, that the 
excitement was greatest amongst the better class of sol- 
diers, the " worthy and faithful men," as their commander 
described them, " who, from their early engaging in the 
war at moderate bounties, and from their patient continu- 
ance under innumerable distresses, have not only deserved 
well of their country, but have obtained an honorable dis- 
tinction over those who, with shorter times, have gained 
large pecuniary rewards." Washington, and Washington 
alone, w^as equal to the crisis. He had repelled with unut- 
terable disdain the offer of a crown from certain individuals 
in the army a year before, (May, 1782.) He now rebuked 
the spirit of the Newburg addresses, and by his majestic 

* "If peace [comes], that nothing shall separate you from your arms 
but death ; if war, that . . you Avill retire to some unsettled country." 



WAR, CONTINUED. 265 

integrity, quelled the rising passions of those around him. 
But he entered with all the greater fervor into the just 
claims of the army. His refusal at the outset of the war, 
renewed at the close,* to receive any compensation for his 
services to the country, placed him in precisely the position 
from which he could now appeal in behalf of his officers 
and soldiers to Congress and the nation. His voice was 
heard. The army obtained a promise of its pay, including 
the commutation to a fixed sum of the half pay for life 
formerly promised to the officers at the expiration of the 
war, (March, 1783.) All was not yet secure. But three 
months later, and a body of Pennsylvanian troops marched 
upon Congress itself in Philadelphia. Washington de-^ 
nounced the act with scorn. " These Pennsylvania 
levies," he says, " who have now mutinied, are recruits 
and soldiers of a day, who have not borne the heat and 
burden of the war." He at once sent a force to reduce 
and to chastise them, (June.) 

Disbaud- " It is high time for a peace," Washington had 
ins- written some months previously. The army was 
slowly disbanded, a small number only being left when the 
formal proclamation of dissolution was made, (November 
3.) A few troops were still retained in arms. Of these, 
ana of his faithful officers, the commander-in-chief took his 
leave at New York, (December 4.) Thence he repaired 
to Annapolis, where Congress was in session, and there 
resigned the commission which he had held, unstained and 
glorious, for eight years and a half, (December 23.) 

It seems as if he left no one behind him. The 
ment of town and the state, each had its authorities ; but 
the na- ^hc nation was without a ffovernment, at least with 

tioa. , 

nothing more than the name of one. let the 

* Just after resigning his commission, he declined the overtures of 
Pennsylvania to propose a national remuneration for his sacrifices. 
23 



206 PART III. 1763-1797. 

need of a directing and a sustaining power had never been 
greater or clearer. It" the war itself was over, its conse- 
quences, its burdens, its debts, its wasting inliuences, were 
but begun. 
,„ , No one saw this more plainly, no one felt it more 

Washing- ^ "^ ^ . 

ton's deeply, than the retiring commander-in-chief. At 
no time had he been absorbed in his military duties. 
In his relations to Congress, to the states, even to the citi- 
zens, as well as in those to foreigners, . whether allies or 
enemies, he had been almost as much the civil as the mili- 
tary head of the country. The arm that had led the nation 
through the field was now lifted to point out the paths that 
opened beyond. " According to the system of policy the 
states shall adopt at this moment," — thus Washington wrote 
to the governors of the states, on disbanding the army, — 
" they will stand or fall ; and by their confirmation or lapse, 
it is yet to be decided Avhether the revolution must ultimate- 
ly be considered as a blessing or a curse ; a blessing or a 
curse, not to the present age alone, for with our fate will 
the destiny of unborn millions be involved." " There are 
four things," he continued, " which I humbly conceive are 
essential to the well being, I may even venture to say, to 
the existence, of the United States as an independent power. 

" First. An indissoluble union of the states under one 
federal head. 

" Second. A sacred regard to public justice. 

" Third. The adoption of a proper peace establishment. 
And 

" Fourth. The prevalence of that pacific and friendly 
disposition among the people of the United States which 
Avill induce them to forget their local prejudices and poli- 
cies ; to make those mutual concessions which are requisite 
to tlie general prosperity ; and in some instances, to sacri- 
fice llieir individual advantages to the interest of the 
community." 



WAR, CONTINUED. 267 

An^ " I now make it my earnest prayer," concluded 

prayers. i\^q Christian hero, '' that God would have you, and 
the state over which you preside, in His holy protection ; 
that He would incline the hearts of the citizens to cultivate 
a spirit of subordination and obedience to government, to 
entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for 
their fellow-citizens of the United States at large, and par- 
ticularly for their brethren who have served them in the 
field ; and finally, that He would most graciously be pleased 
to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean 
ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of 
mind, which were the characteristics of the divine Author 
of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of 
whose example in these things we can never hope to be a 
happy nation." 



CHAPTER VI. 

The Constitution. 

Forei-n ^^^ lovGS to dwell upoii tliG Sympathy from 
sympa- abroad for the infant nation. What had been 

repressed -while the states were still claimed as the 
colonies of Great Britain broke forth after the claim was 
set aside. From all parts of Europe, from all parts of 
Great Britain itself, there came congratulations and ap- 
plauses.' Even sovereigns did homage to the republic. 
The King of France continued its friend. The King of 
Spain, recognizing its national existence, sent gifts and 
compliments to its great leader, Washington. 
j^^^^ ^_ No proof of regard was dearer to Washington or 

ette's to the nation than one which came from the friend 

and the champion of many years, the devoted 
Lafayette. He had spent two years and a half in gener- 
ous exertions at home, when he crossed the seas to join in 
the American rejoicings at the definite establishment of 
independence. The whole people welcomed him. Divided 
on many points, they were united in the grateful affection 
which he had inspired. Soldiers and citizens, the wild 
IJorderers and the plodding townspeople, the inhabitants of 
every section, thronged together with a common desire of 
doing honor to Lafayette. He was feasted in all the prin- 
cipal places. Congress gave him a public reception. Wash- 
ington crowned him with love and parental gratitude at 
Mount Vernon. After a six months' tour, he left America 

(268> 



THE CONSTITUTION. 269 

m 

to share in the struggles of his native country, (August, 
1784 — January, 1785.) 

Wants of He left the country of his adoption in the midst 
America, ^f struggles of its owu. It was contending against 
manifold wants, some common to any youthful nation, others 
peculiar to itself, to a nation so unique in its history, and 
especially m the history of the last twenty years. It 
is to these wants, and to the manner in which they were 
supplied, that we are to turn. 

Oigan- Chief of them all, the one, indeed, in which they 

ization. ^j^ j^g found to liavc been comprehended, like 
segments in a circle, was organization. The sharp points, 
the intersecting lines, the clashing forms of different dis- 
tricts and of different institutions, needed to be reduced to 
order within the curve, at once enfolding and harmonizing, 
of a national system. There was hardly a political princi- 
ple upon which the entire country agreed. There was not 
one political powder by which it was governed. Interests 
were opposed to interests, classes to classes ; nay, men to 
men. When the officers of the army, for instance, formed 
into a society, under the name of the Cincinnati, for the 
purpose of keeping up their relations with one another, and 
more particularly of succoring those who might fall into 
distress, a general uproar was raised, because the member- 
shij) of the society was to be hereditary, from father to son, 
or from kinsman to kinsman. It was found necessary to 
sti-ike out this provision, at the first general meeting of the 
Cincinnati, (1784.) Even then, though there remained 
nothing but a charitable association, it was inveighed 
against as a caste, as an aristocracy ; as any thing, in short, 
save what it really was. It is easy to say that all this is a 
sign of republicanism, of a devoted anxiety to preserve the 
institutions for which loss and sufferings had been endured. 
But it is a clearer sign of the suspicions and the collisions 



270 PART III. 1763-1797. 

which were rending the nation asunder. There was but a 
single remedy. The people were to be united ; the country 
was to be made one. 

The states were absorbed in their own troubles. 

The 

.states. The debts of the Confederation lay heavy upon 
Internal them, in addition to those contracted by themselves. 

troubles. . • i i i 

Their citizens were impoverished, here and there 
maddened by the calamities and the burdens, private and 
public, which they were obliged to bear together. At 
Exeter, the assembly of New Hampshire was assailed by 
two hundred men with weapons, demanding an emission of 
paper money. All day, the insurgents held possession of 
the legislative chamber ; Tbut in the early evening, they 
were dispersed by a rumor that Exeter was taking up 
arms against them, (1786.) The same year, the courts of 
Massachusetts were prevented from holding their usual 
sessions by bodies of armed men, whose main object it was 
to prevent any collection of debts or taxes. So general 
was the sympathy with the movement, not only in Massa- 
chusetts, but in the adjoining states, that twelve or fifteen 
thousand were supposed to be ready to do the same. 
Nearly two thousand were in arms at the beginning of 
the following year, (1787.) The horror excited in the 
rest of the country was intense. Congress ordered troops 
to be raised, but as it had no power to interfere with the 
states, the pretext of Indian hostilities was set up. Massa- 
chusetts was fortunate in having James Bowdoin for a 
governor. Under his influence chiefly, — for the legislature 
was partly paralyzed and partly infected, — the danger 
was met. One or two thousand militia, under the command 
of General Lincoln, marched against the insurgents, at the 
head of whom was Daniel Shays, a captain in the continen-. 
tal army. Already driven back from Springfield, where 
they had attacked the arsenal, the insurgents retreated to 



THE CONSTITUTION. 271 

Petersham, and were there put to rout. Of all the prison- 
ers, fourteen alone were tried and condemned, not one being 
executed. The insurrection had lasted about six: months, 
(August, 1786— February, 1787.) 

Dismem- Nor wcrc such insurrcctions the only ones of the 
beiments. time. A body of settlers in Wyoming, principally 
emigrants from New England, held their hmd by grants 
from Connecticut, long the claimant of the territory. AVhen 
Connecticut gave way to Pennsylvania, and the latter state 
insisted upon the necessity of new titles to tlie settlements 
of Wyoming, the settlers armed themselves, and threatened 
to set up a state of their own, (1782-87.) What was 
threatened .there was actually executed elsewhere. The 
western counties of North Carolina, excited by being ceded 
to the United States, organized an independent government, 
as the state of Franklin or Frankland, (1784.) But the 
people were divided, and the governor, Colonel Sevier, of 
King's Mountain fame, was ultimately compelled to fly by the 
opponents of an independent organization, (1788.) Mean- 
while old projects of independence liad been revived in the 
Kentucky counties of Virginia. Petitions and resolutions 
led to acts of the Virginia legislature consenting to the 
independence of Kentucky on certain conditions, (1785- 
86.) Kentucky soon after petitioned Congress for admis- 
sion to the Union, but without immediate effect, (1787-88.) 
All these instances of dismemberment, proposed or accom- 
plished, relate to frontier settlements, where independence 
was suggested as much by the position as by the character 
of the settlers. But the older districts were stirred in the 
same way. Maine again and again strove to be detached 
from Massachusetts, (1786.) 

Case of The case of Vermont was one apart. It came 
Vermont, ^jp j-j^^r^p ^jie beginning of the war, when the inhab- 
itants of that district, then known as the New Hampshire 



272 PART III. 1763-1797. 

grants, declared it the State of Vermont, (January, 1777,) 
and asked admission to the Union, (July.) The request 
was denied, on account of the chiims of New York to the 
territory. A number of towns in the valley of the Con- 
necticut, and partly within the limits of New Hampshire, 
afterwards formed themselves into the State of New Con- 
necticut, (1779.) This soon fell through, leaving its prede- 
cessor, Vermont, to be enlarged by the New Hampshire 
towns on the eastern banks of the Connecticut, together 
witli the New York settlements as far, as the Hudson, 
(1781.) Overtures were then made to the British author- 
ities in Canada, with, whom the Vermonters might well 
wish to be on good terms, so long as they were excluded 
from the Union. Congress took alarm, as Vermont expect- 
ed, and proposed to grant admission, provided the recent 
annexations from New Hampshire and New York were 
surrendered. This Avas done ; but Congress still kept Ver- 
mont at a distance, (1782.) A member of the body, James 
Madison, explains the reasons why a ]>romise, so long de- 
layed, was finally violated. The Eastern States, except Ncav 
Hampshire, and the Central States, except New York, 
advocated the entrance of Vermont, while New York and 
the Southern States opposed it, as Mr. Madison relates, 
through " first, an habitual jealousy of a predominance of 
eastern interests ; secondly, the opposition expected from 
Vermont to western claims ; thirdly, the inexpediency of 
admitting so unimportant a state to an equal vote in decid- 
ing a peace, and all the other grand interests of the Union 
now depending ; fourthly, the influence of the example on 
a premature dismemberment of the other states." So Ver- 
mont remained aloof, contented, one may believe, to be free 
from the troubles of the United States. 

The strife exhibited in the case of Vermont was nothing 
new or temporary. Disputes between state and statfe arose, 



THE CONSTITUTION. 273 

as we have had occasion to observe, in the midst 
between^ of war, and peace had not put them to rest. When 
state and ^j^^. Madison spcaks of sectional interests, he alhides 

state. ^ 

to the varieties of occupation and of investment 
which distinguished one state from another. Such things 
could not but lead to different systems in different parts of 
the country, the more so, especially in the north and in the 
south, that there were differences of character, and even of 
principle, to enhance the differences of pursuits or of pos- 
sessions. The allusion to the western territory is to a 
subject already noticed in our pages. Partially settled at 
the time when the Confederation was completed, the ques- 
tion of the unoccupied lands was still undecided. It united 
the smaller states, as a general rule, against the larger ones, 
by whom the western regions were claimed. Besides these 
great divisions between north and south, and between the 
larger and the smaller states, there were others of more 
limited nature. Boundary questions came up, some to be 
determined, and others to be left undetermined, but none to 
subside immediately. Variances as to the share of the 
national debt, and more particularly as to the method of 
meeting it, endured from year to year. In short, the thii-- 
teen states, instead of being intertwined, were set against 
one another on almost every point of importance that arose 
amongst them. 

General ^^^^ general government continued in the same fee- 
govern- ble state that has been repeatedly observed. If there 

was any change, it was that the Confederation and 
its Congress had sunk to a still lower degree of inefficiency. 
There was even less attention to its wants on the part of the 
states ; its requisitions went almost unanswered, their obliga- 
tions almost unregarded. The superintendent of finance, 
Robert Morris, of Philadelphia, by whose personal exertions 
and advances the country had been forced through the last 



274 PART III. 1763-1797. 

years of tlie war, laid down his office in despair, after a 
year of peace. His creation of a bank — the Bank of 
North America (1781) — was recommended by Congress 
to the states, with the request that branches should be 
established ; but in vain. Congress renewed its petition, as 
it may be styled, for power to lay a duty on imports, if 
only for a hmited period, (1783.) After long delay, a 
fresh appeal was made with really piteous representations 
of the national insolvency. New York refused to comply 
upon the terms proposed, and Congress was again humili- 
ated, (178G.) During its efforts on this point. Congress 
had roused itself upon anotlier, and asked for authority 
over foreign commerce. Such was the urgency of the 
interests at stake, that Congress went so far as to appoint a 
commission for the purpose of negotiating commercial trea- 
ties with the European powers, (1784.)* But the suppli- 
cations of Congress to the states were once more denied, 
(1784-86.) 

On one point alone was Congress worthy to be 
zation Called a government. It organized the western 
north- territory, after having prevailed upon the states, 
vostter- or most of them, to abandon their pretensions to 
'"^'^' regions so remote from themselves. Virginia hav- 
ing followed the earlier example of New York, a plan was 
brought forward by one of her delegates, Thomas Jefferson, 
for the division and constitution of the western territory. 
The plan, at first, embraced the organization of the entire 
western territory, out of which seventeen states, all free, 
were to be formed. The proposed prohibition of slavery 
was at once voted down ; otherwise the project was adopted, 

* A treaty was made with only one of them, (Prussia,) but it contained 
substance enough for a score of old treaties, in prohibiting privateering, 
and sustaining the liberty of neutral commerce in case of war, (1785.) 
Sec the next chapter. 



THE CONSTITUTION. 275 

(April, 1784.) But the cessions of the states not yet cover- 
ing the whole of the region thus apportioned, its organiza- 
tion was postponed until the national title to the lands could 
be made complete. Massachusetts (1785) and Connecticut 
(1786) ceded their claims, the latter state, however, with a 
reservation. Treaties with various tribes disposed in part 
of the Indian titles to the western territories, (1784—8G.) * 
All these cessions completing the hold of the nation upon 
the tract north-west of the Ohio,t that country was definite- 
ly organized as the North-west Territory, by an ordinance 
of Congress, (July 13, 1787 ) This intrusted the govern- 
ment of the territory partly to officers appointed by Con- 
gress, and partly to an assembly to be chosen by the settlers 
as soon as they amounted to live thousand ; the inhabitants 
and the authorities being alike bound to the observance of 
certain articles of compact between the old states and the 
new ones that might arise within the territory. These 
articles provided for religious liberty; for habeas corpus, 
trial by jury, and kindred privileges ; for the encourage- 
ment of religion and education, and for justice towards the 
Indians ; for the equal rights and responsibilities of the 
new states and the old ; for the division of the territory 
into states ; and lastly, for the prohibition of slavery. 
Under so liberal an organization, surveys, sales, and settle- 
ments followed fast. A colony from Massachusetts was the 
first to occupy Ohio, at Marietta, (1788.) 
Difficui- Singular enough, while Congress was taking these 
ties with stcps to prcscrvc the western domains, it was taking 
others to endanger them. Eager to secure a treaty 

* It was many years before the Indian title was completely extin- 
guished 

t The south-west territory, though ceded in great part by the Indians, 
was not yet ceded by the states on whose borders it lay. South Carolina 
was the first to give up her claims, (August, 1787.) 



27 G PART III. 17G3-1797. 

of commerce with Spain, the Nortlicrn and Central States 
assented to surrender tlie navigation of the Mississippi to 
that power, (1786.) In tliis they had no less an authority 
upon their side than Washington, who appears to have 
attached more importance to internal communication be- 
tween the west and the east alone than to that wider inter- 
course which the west would possess by means of its mighty 
river. Jefferson, then the American minister at Paris, w^as 
farther sighted. " The act," he wrote, " which abandons 
the navigation of the Mississippi, is an act of separation 
between "the eastern and w^estern country," (1787.) Sup- 
pose the right to the Mississippi waived, even for a limited 
period, and the probability is, that a large number of the 
western settlers, conceiving themselves sacrificed, would 
have separated from their countrymen, and gained a passage 
through the stream either in war or in alliaucfe wdth Spain. 
Relations with Great Britain were still more dis- 

And 

Great turbcd than those with Spain. Nor were they less 
Britain, ^j^j-g^^j-gj-jj^^g ^q ^j^g wcst. The treaty of peace exact- 
ed the surrender of the western posts by Britain. But 
America was required at the same time to pirovide for the 
debts of great magnitude due to British merchants. This, 
however, was not done. Congress was unable, and the 
states were unwilling, to effect any thing ; five states, 
indeed, continuing or commencing measures to prevent the 
collection of British debts. When,' therefore, John Adams, 
the first minister to Great Britain, entered into a negotia- 
tion for the recovery of the posts wdiich the British still 
held, he was met at once by -the demand that the American 
part in the treaty should be fulfilled, (1786.) The subject 
of debts was not the only one on which the states were 
violating the treaty. But it was the chief infraction ; and 
against it chiefly was directed a remonstrance which Con- 
gress addressed to the states, altogether in vain, (1787.) 



THE CONSTITUTION. 277 

Park " The consideration felt for America by Europe/' 

times. -wrote Lafayette, " is diminishing to a degree truly 
painful ; and what has been gained by the revolution is in 
danger of b£ing lost little by little, at least during an inter- 
val of trial to all the friends of the nation." " I am morti- 
fied beyond expression," wrote Washington, "when I view 
the clouds that have spread over the brightest morn that 
ever dawned upon any country." 

Old foun- Amid this tottering of the national system, the 
dations. qIj foundations stood secure. Tlie laws that had 
been laid deep in the past, the institutions, i)olitical and 
social, that had been reared above them, remained to sup- 
port the present uncertainties. Every strong principle of 
the mother country, every broad reform of the colonies, 
contributed to the strength and the development of the 
struixi^'ling- nation. 

Nor were recent superstructures wanting. The 
super- states, in forming and reforming their constitutions, 
Rtiuc- get up many a great principle, imdeveloped, if not 
unknown, in earlier times. Nothing, for instance, 
could be more novel, as well as more admirable, than the 
indemnity * voted by Pennsylvania to the proprietary family 
of which she had cast off the dominion. It was a recog- 
nition of rights belonging to rulers, that had never been 
j^iiade by subjects in a successful revolution. The law of 
inheritance was another point of new proportions. The 
claim of the eldest son to a double share of his father's 
property, if not to all the prerogatives of primogeniture, 
was gradually prohibited, Georgia taking the lead. Suf- 
frage M^as extended in several states,t from holders of real 

* £130,000 sterling, in addition to 'all the private domains of the 
family. Maryland made no snch indemnity; but the representative of 
her proprietor was an illegitimate son 

t New Hampshire, Pennsyh ania, Delaware, South Carolina, and, par- 
tially, North Carolina, ^ . 



278 PART III. 1763-1797. 

or personal property to all tax-paying freemen. Personal 
liberty obtained extension and protection. The class of 
indented servants diminished. That of slaves disappeared 
altogether in some of the states. Massachusetts, declaring 
men free and equal by her Bill of Rights, was pronounced 
by her Supreme Court to have put an end to slavery within 
her limits, (1780-83.) Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, 
Rhode Island, and Connecticut forbade the importation of 
slaves, and the bondage of any persons thereafter born 
upon their soil. Other states declared against the transpor- 
tation of slaves from state to state, others against tlie 
foreign slave trade ; all, in fine, moving with greater or 
less energy in the same direction, save only South Carolina 
and Georgia. Societies were formed in many places to 
quicken the action of the authorities. In making exertions, 
and in maintaining principles like these, the nation was 
proving its title to independence. 

iieiigioua Nothing, however, was more full of promise than 
privileges, ^j^g religious privileges to which the states consented. 
Rhode Island, who, as formerly mentioned, had no dispo- 
sition to change her existing institutions, made one altera- 
tion by striking out the prohibitory statute against Roman 
Cathohcs, (1784.) But Rhode Island was no longer alone 
in her glory. The majority of the state constitutions 
allowed entire religious liberty. The only real restrictions 
upon it were those to which the Puritan states still clung 
in enforcing the payment of taxes, and the attendance upon 
services in some church or other; the old leaven not having 
entirely lost its power. Particular forms of faith were here 
and there required, if not from the citizens, at any rate 
from the magistrates ; Roman Catholics being excluded 
from office in several states of the north, the centre, and 
the south. 

As there was no sino;le fold into which the Christians of 



THE CONSTITUTION. ^ 279 

the United States would enter, it was of the hii^hest 

Ecclesi- . 11. r> 1 -1 1 , -■ 

asticai importance that their separate lokls slioukl be 
organiza- maj-j^ed oiit and governed upon definite principles. 
Nothing else was likely to prevent colhsion among 
the more zealous, or straying away among the more luke- 
warm. The American branch of the church of England, 
deserted by the loyalists, and suspected, if not assailed, by 
the patriots, had but just survived the revolutionary strug- 
gle. It obtained its first bishop, Samuel Seabury, by ordi- 
nation in Scotland, (1784,) his first associates. White and 
Provoost, being consecrated in England, (1787.) A conven- 
tion of several states at New York declared their church the 
Protestant Episcopal church of the United States, (1784.) 
The Methodist Episcopal church, strongest in the centre and 
the south, obtained its first bishop, Thomas Coke, (1784.) 
Two years afterwards, the first Roman Catholic bishop, John 
Carroll, was appointed to the see of Baltimore, (1786.) 
The Presbyterians then formed their synods for the Central 
and the Southern States, (1788.) In the north, the Presby- 
terians and the Congregationalists, uniting to a certain 
degree, continued their ancient institutions. All over the 
country, ecclesiastical systems were reducing themselves to 
form and law. 

Surges- It was time for the nation to profit by the exam- 
tions of pigg j^j^j ^i^Q principles that have been enumerated, 

a nation- . 

ai Consti- — time for it to guard against the conflicts and the 
tution. pgpjig ii^^i have been described. Alexander Ham- 
ilton, as mentioned in a former chapter, conceived the idea 
of a ^Convention for forming a national Constitution as early 
as 1780. Other individuals advocated the same measure, 
in private or in public. The legislature of New* York 
supported it in 1782. The legislature of Massachusetts 
supported it in 1785. 

In the spring of. the same year, (1785,) a number of 



280 PART III. 1763-1797. 

commissioners from Maryland and Virginia assem- 

Conven- *' ^ 

tious at bled at Alexandria, for the purpose of regulating 
Aiexan- ^|^^ navigation of the Chesapeake and the Potomac. 

dria and ~ ^ 

Annapo- They also met at Mount Vernon. James Madison 
was one of their number, and he suggested the 
appointment of commissioners with additional powers to 
act, Avith the assent of Congress, in organizing a tariff for 
the two states. This being recommended by the commis- 
sion at Alexandria, the Virginia legislature enlarged the 
plan, by appointing commissioners to meet others, not only 
from Maryland, but from all the states, and " to take into 
consideration the trade of the United States." Five states 
were represented in a Convention at Annapolis in the 
autumn of the following year, (1786.) They were wise 
enough to see two things : one, that five states could not act 
for the whole ; and the other, that the subject of trade was 
but a drop in the ocean of difficulties with which the nation 
was threatened. At the proposal of Alexander Hamilton, 
one of the commissioners, and the same who had urged the 
formation of a Constitution six years before, the Convention 
at Annapolis recommended a national convention at Phila- 
delphia in the ensuing month of May, " to take into consid- 
eration the situation of the United States, to devise such 
further provisions as shall appear necessary to render the 
Constitution of the federal government adequate to the 
exigencies of the Union, and to report such an act for that 
purpose to the United States in Congress assembled, as, 
when agreed to by them, and afterwards confirmed by the 
legislature of every state, will effectually provide fof the 
same." 

Action of The first to act upon this proposal from Annapo- 
Virginia. jjg ^y^^g ^he state so often foremost in the cause of 
the country. Thus spoke Virginia : " The General Assem- 
bly of this commouwealth, taking into view the actual 



THE CONSTITUTION. 281 

situation of the Confederacy, . . . can no longer doubt 
that the crisis is arrived at which the good people of Amer- 
ica are to decide the solemn question whether they will, by 
wise and magnanimous efforts, reap the just fruits of that 
independence which they have so gloriously acquired, and 
of that union which they have cemented with so much of 
their common blood, or whether, by giving way to unmanly 
jealousies and prejudices, or to partial and transitory inter- 
ests, they will renounce the auspicious blessings prepared 
for them by the revolution. . * . . The same noble and 
extended policy, and the same fraternal and affectionate 
sentiments which originally determined the citizens of this 
commonwealth to unite with their brethren of the other 
states in establishing a federal government, cannot but be 
felt with equal force now, as motives to lay aside every 
inferior consideration, and to concur in such further conces- 
sions and •provisions as may be necessary to secure the 
great objects for which that government was instituted, and 
to render the United States as happy in peace as they have 
been glorious in war." Thereupon the legislature appointed 
its deputies to join with those of the other states " in devis- 
ing and discussing all such alterations and provisions as 
may be necessary to render the Federal Constitution ade- 
quate to the exigencies of the Union.'* 

The noble example thus set was at, once followed 
states ^y New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and 
and of Delaware. By the time these states declared them- 
selves, (February, 1787,) Congress, after many 
doubts as to the propriety of the course, came out with a 
call of its own. Instead, however, of taking the broad 
gr©und on which Virginia set herself, Congress limited 
its summons to a convention " for the sole and express pur- 
pose of revising the Articles of Confederation." The other 
states, Hhode Island excepted, went on to appoint their del- 
24* 



282 PART III. 1763-1797. 

egates. The credentials of some representations supported 
the liberal views of Virginia ; those of others the narrower 
purpose of Congress. Only one state, Delaware, laid its 
representatives under a positive restriction, namely, to 
maintain the right of the state, the smallest but one in the 
Union, to an equal vote in any government that might be 
' framed. 

The same hall in which the Declaration of Inde- 
of the '^ pendence had been adopted, more than eleven years 
Conven- jjeforc, and in which Confess had continued to sit 

tiou. . ' f 

during the greater part of the intervening period, in 
the Sfate House at Philadelphia, was chosen for the ses- 
sions of the Convention. The day fixed for the opening 
arrived. " Such members as were in town " — runs the 
diary of Washington, who had consented, against his incli- 
nation, to sit in the Convention — " assembled at the State 
House ; but only two states being represented, ncynely, Vir- 
ginia and Pennsylvania, agreed to meet to-morrow," (May 
14, 1787.) It must have been with anxious thoughts that 
the few who met found themselves obliged to separate day 
after day, without being able to make so much as a begin- 
ning in the work before them. At lengtli, eleven days 
after the appointed time, the representatives of seven states 
— a bare majority — assembled and opened the Conven- 
tion. As a matter of course, George Washington was 
elected president, (May 25.) 

The United States of America never wore a more 

Aspect, 

majestic aspect tlian in the Convention, which grad- 
ually * filled up with the delegates of every state except 
Rhode Island. The purpose of the assembly was sufficient 
to invest it with solemnity. To meet in the design of 
strengthening instead of enfeebling authority, of forming a 

* New Hampshire Tvas not represented till July 23. 



THE CONSTITUTION. 283 

government which should enable the nation to fuliil, instead 
of eluding its obligations alike to the citizen and the stran- 
ger, — to meet with these intentions was to do what the 
world had never witnessed. It is scarcely necessary to say 
that lower motives entered in ; that the interests of classes 
and of sections, the prejudices of narrow politicians and of 
selfish men, obtruded themselves with ominous strength. 
Many of the members were altogether unequal to the na- 
tional duties of the Convention. But they were surrounded 
by others of a nobler mould — by the venerable Franklin, 
lately returned from his French mission, the representative 
of the later colonial days ; by various members of the 
Stamp Act Congress, of the Congress that declared inde- 
pendence, and of the subsequent Congresses before and 
during the Confederation ; by several representatives of 
the younger class of patriots, notably by Alexander Ham- 
ilton and James Madison, who had been conspicuous in the 
movements preliminary to the Convention ; and by many 
more whose names do not depend upon a volume like the 
present for reverential recollection. 

Plan f ^^^^ rules of the Convention ordered secrecy of 
a consti- debate and the right of each state to an equal vote. 
Governor Randolph, of Virginia, then opened the 
deliberations upon a constitution by offering a series of res- 
olutions proposing a national legislature of two branches, a 
national executive, and a national judiciary of supreme and 
inferior tribunals. Charles C. Pinckpey, of Soutli Carolina, 
offered a sketch of government, based on the same prin- 
ciples as Randolph's, but developed with greater detail. 
Both the plans were referred to a committee of the whole ; 
but Randolph's, or the Virginia plan, as it was rightly 
called, engrossed the debate. At the end of a fortnight the 
committee reported in favor of the Virginia system. 
Things had not gone so far without opposition, to the ele- 



284 PART III. 1763-1797. 

ments of whicli we will revert immediately. On the report 
of the committee, a new phin was offered by WilHam Pat- 
terson, of New Jersey, embodying the views of the Con- 
necticut, New York, Dekiware, and Maryland, as well as 
the New Jersey delegations. This New Jersey plan, so 
st}'led, proposed a government of much more limited powers 
than that of the Virginia pattern. The two were referred 
to a committee of the whole. Soon after, Alexander Ham- 
ilton broached a plan of his own, going to the very opposite 
extreme of the New Jersey system. He was for taking the 
British constitution as " the best model the world has ever 
produced," and for creating a national government, of which 
the executive and the higher branch of the legislature, as 
well as the judiciary, should all be elected to serve during 
good behavior or life. Hamilton presented his plan as an 
exposition of his personal convictions rather than as a sub- 
ject for debate, confessing that it was " very remote from 
the idea of the people." The question, therefore, lay be- 
tween the Virginia and the New Jersey plans. 
Question But there was another question to be previously 
of powers, decided, if not by formal vote, at least by the course 
of opinions. Doubt existed about the powers of the Con- 
vention. Some insisted that it could do no more than 
revise the Articles of the Confederation ; in other words, 
that it might reform, but not displace, the existing govern- 
ment. These members were of course the supi3orters of the 
New Jersey plan. They called it by the name of federal, 
in opposition to the system, at the time styled anti-federal, 
of their opponents. The anti-federal — that is, the nq^ional 
men — maintained the necessity of a new government as 
sufficient to authorize the Convention to frame one, even if 
the power to do so had not been expressly given. They 
urged this the more, in that the Convention would not 
create the government, but simply recommend its creation 



THE CONSTITUTION. 285 

to the nation. The difference between the two sides was, 
as we see, immense. As the one or as the other prevailed, 
so followed the fate not merely of the Virginia and the 
New Jersey plans, but of the Constitution and the nation. 
. ,. , It was, therefore, a turnino^ point in the move- 

A national ' ' ® ^ 

system ments of the Convention, when the committee of the 
adopted, ^yj^^jg reported once more in favor of the Virginia 
plan. The labors of construction and of detail were all to be 
gone through. But the one guiding and assuring principle 
of a national system was gained, (June 29.) 

Parties were by this time but too distinctly de- 
^mlir ^^^^^' The federal side was taken, as a general 
states and rulc, by the representatives of the small states, the 
states. national by those of the large. Whatever was up- 
held by the large states, especially Massachusetts, 
Pennsylvania, and, above all, Virginia, was, as if for this 
simple reason, opjiosed by the small ones. There was a 
constant dread of the dominion which, it was supposed, 
would be exercised by the superior states to the disadvan- 
tage and the disgrace of those of inferior rank. Perhaps 
the tone assumed by the large states was such as reasonably 
to inspire suspicion. Certain it is, that the breach between 
the two parties grew wider and wider, particularly when 
the committee and the Convention pronounced in favor of 
the national plan. Within ten days afterwards, Franklin, 
shocked by the altercations around him, moved that prayers 
should be said every morning. The motion was parried, 
partly, it was said, to prevent the public from surmising the 
divisions of the Convention. 

Views of ^^^^^ starting point, so far as theory was con- 
state gov- cerned, of the two parties, was the government by 
states. In this, the federal members argued, re- 
sides the only principle of sovereignty, and to this recourse 
must be had for the life and breath of a government for the 



286 PART III. 1763-1797. 

nation. Hence the name of federal, implying the support 
of a league — that is, a league between the states — as the 
true form of a general government. All this the national 
party opposed. We are not met, they reasoned, to fashion 
a, Constitution out of the states or for the states, but to 
create a Constitution for the people ; it is the people, not 
the states, who are to be governed and united ; it is the 
people, moreover, from whom the power required for the 
Constitution is to emanate. At the same time, the national 
members, with a few exceptions, were far from denying the 
excellence of state governments. These, they urged, are 
precisely what we want to manage the local affairs of the 
different portions of the country ; in this capacity, the states 
will be truly the pillars of the Union. 

Totes of These views had entered largely into the debates 
states. already decided by the adoption of a national plan 
for the Constitution. They were again brought forward, 
and with renewed earnestness, in relation to a question now 
coming up for decision. Before the Confederation, and 
after it, the votes of the states in Congress had been equal, 
each state having a single vote, and no more. This was 
the rule, as has been mentioned, of the Convention. But 
when the point was reached in the constitutional debates, 
the national party insisted upon an entirely different sys- 
tem. The votes to be taken in the legislative branches of 
the new government are not, it was asserted, the votes of 
the states, but the votes of the people ; let them, therefore, 
be given according to the numbers of the people, not of the 
states. Not so, replied the federal members, — and they 
had reason to be excited, for it was from apprehension on 
this very point that they had opposed the national plan, — 
not so, they replied, or our states, with their scanty votes, 
will be utterly absorbed in the larger states. One of the 
small states, Delaware, sent her representatives, as may 



THE CONSTITUTION. 287 

be' reviembered, with express instructions to reserve her 

equal vote in the national legislature. But the federal 

party, already disappointed, found itself doomed to a fresh 

disappointment. Abandoning, or intimating that it was 

willing to abandon, the claim of an equal vote in both 

branches of the legislature, it stood the firmer for equality 

in one of the branches — the Senate of the Constitution. 

Even this more moderate demand was disregarded by the 

majority, intent upon unequal votes in both the branches. 

Great agitation followed. " We will sooner sub- 
Agitation. " I 5) • 1 • n 

mit to foreign power ! cried a representative from 

one of the small states. But for the reference of the 
matter to a committee, who, at the instance of Franklin, 
adopted a compromise, making the votes of the states equal 
in the Senate, the work of the Convention would have come 
to a sudden close. As it was, the report of the committee 
liardly allayed the tumultuous passions that had been 
aroused. It but partly satisfied the small states, while it 
kindled the Avrath of tlie large, secure as these thought 
themselves, upon the point which they were now required 
to yield. "If no compromise should take place," asked 
Elbridge Gerry, of Massachusetts, " what will be the con- 
sequence ? A secession will take place, for some gentle- 
men seem decided on it." It was the federal party that 
talked of secession. The national party, no wiser, as a 
whole, spoke of the dismemberment and absorption of the 
smaller states, hinting at the sword. Two of the New 
York delegation, incensed or dejected by the triumphant 
course of the national members, deserted the Convention. 
" We were on the verge of dissolution," said Luther Martin, 
a member from Maryland, " scarce held together by the 
strength of a hair." Fortunately, peace prevailed. The 
compromise was accepted, and both national and federal 
members united in determining on an equal vote in the 
Senate and an unequal vote in the House that were to be. 



288 PART III. 1763-1797. 

„ .. Another division besides that between the lame 

Parties : o 

north and and tlie small states had now appeared. It sepa- 
rated the north from the south. How many 
reasons there were for the separation has been remarked ; 
but the reason of all, the one so strong as to lead men to 
acknowledge that the division between the north and the 
south was wider than any other in the Convention, — the 
great reason was slavery. This system, pierced, if not 
overthrown, in all the Northern and in some of the Central 
States, was still cherished in the south. The scanty num- 
bers of the free population in the Southern States seemed 
to make slaves a necessity there. 

The first struggle upon the point arose with re- 
tionment spcct to the apportionment of representation. It 

of repre- ^^^^g ^^ ^^ dccidcd liow the people were to be repre- 
sentation. ^ ^ ^ 

sented, in what proportions, and in what classes. 

Upon this subject all other questions yielded to one, 
namely, whether slaves should be included witlx free- 
men, not, of course, as voting, but as making up the num- 
ber entitled to representation. The extreme party of the 
south said that they must be, and on the same terms, being 
equally valuable as the free laborers of the north. On the 
other hand, the extreme party of the north declared that 
slaves should never be taken into account until they were 
emancipated, as they ought to be. The necessity for com- 
promise was again evident. The moderate members of 
either side came together, and agreed that three fifths of 
the slave population should be enumerated with the whole 
of the white population in apportioning the representatives 
amongst the different states. 

The slave -A- gravcr poiut was raised. In the draught of the 
trade. Constitution now under debate, there stood a clause 
forbidding the general government to lay any tax or prohi- 
bition upon the migrations or the importations authorized 



THE CONSTITUTION. ' 289 

by the states. This signified that there was to be no inter- 
ference with the slave trade. "It is inconsistent," ex- 
claimed Martin, of Maryland, " with the principles of the 
revolution, and dishonorable to the American character, to 
have such a feature in the Constitution ! " " Religion and 
humanity," answered John Rutledge, of South Carolina, 
" have nothing to do with this question. Interest alone is 
the governing principle of nations. The true question at 
present is, whether the Southern States shall or shall not 
be parties to the Union." Charles C. Pinckney, calmer than 
his colleague, took broader ground. " If the states be left at 
liberty on this subject, South Carolina may perhaps by de- 
grees do of herself what is wished, as Virginia and IMaryland 
have already done." The opposition to the claims of the 
extreme south came from the Central States, especially from 
Virginia, not from the north. The north, intent upon the 
passage of acts protective of its large shipping interests, 
was quite ready to come to an understanding Avith the 
south. The consequence was that, instead of imitating the 
example of earlier years and declaring the slave trade at an 
end, the Convention protracted its existence for twenty 
years, (till 1808.) At the same time, the restriction upon 
acts relating to commerce was stricken from the Constitu- 
tion. Dark as this transaction seems, it was still a com- 
promise. To extend the slave trade for twenty years was 
far better than to leave it without any limit at all. It Avas 
at the close of these discussions that the draught of the clause 
respecting fugitive slaves was introduced, and accepted 
without discussion. The word slaves, however, was avoided 
here, as it had been in all the portions of the Constitution 
relating to slavery. 

Details There is no occasion in this place for dwelling 

and dis- upon the details and the discussions of the Conven- 
cussions. ^.^^^ Wherever there was a detail, there was al- 
25 



290 TART in. 1763-1797. 

most invariably a discussion ; but the interest in the debates 
generally was altogether subordinate to that excited by the 
questions which have been mentioned. On these, as the 
questions involving compromise, it was felt that the Consti- 
tution depended. " The Constitution which we now pre- 
sent " — thus ran the draught of a letter proposed to be ad- 
dressed to Congress — "is the result of a spirit of amity 
and of that mutual deference and concession which the 
peculiarity of our political situation rendered indispensable." 
"• I can well recollect," said James Wilson to his constitu- 
ents of Pennsylvania, " the impression which on many occa- 
sions was made by the difficulties which surrounded and 
pressed the Convention. The great undertaking sometimes 
seemed to be at a stand ; and other times its motions 
seemed to be retrograde." 

At length, after nearly four months' perseverance 
oftiIe'°" through all the heat of summer, the Convention 
Constitu- agreed to the Constitution, (September 15.) As 
soon as it could be properly engrossed, it was signed 
by all the delegates, save Gerry, of Massachusetts, — who 
hinted at civil war being about to ensue, — Randolph and 
George Mason, of Virginia, (September 17.) As the last 
members were signing, Franklin pointed to a sun painted 
upon the back of the president's chair, saying, "I have often 
and often, in the course of the session and the vicissitude 
of my hopes and fears as to its issue, looked at that sun 
behind the president, without being able to tell whether it 
was rising or setting ; but now, at length, I have the happi- 
ness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun." 
^ ,^ ... The dawn was still uncertain. Presented to 

Opposition 

inthena- Con2:ress, and thence transmitted to the states, to 
t' 

be by them accepted or rejected, the Constitution 

vras received with very general murmurs. Even some 

members of the Convention, on reaching home, declared, 



THE CONSTITUTION. 291 

like Martin, of Maryland, " I would reduce myself to indi- 
gence and poverty, ... if on those terms only I could 
procure my country to reject those chains which are forged 
for it." The words imply the chief cause of the opposition 
excited throughout the nation. It was thought that the 
Constitution was too strong, that it exalted the powers of 
the government too higli, and depressed the rights of the 
states and the people too low. This was the opinion of the 
anti-federalists — a name borne rather than assumed by 
those who had constituted, or by those who succeeded to, the 
federal party in the Convention. On the other side stood 
the federalists, the national party of the Convention, with 
their iidlierents throughout the country. But the names, 
like most party names, rather obscured than explained the 
relations of those to whom they were attached. The feder- 
alists were no advocates of a simple league between the 
states. Nor were the anti-federalists the opponents of such 
a league, but, on the contrary, its supporters. They op- 
posed, not the union, but what they called the subjection of 
the states, proposed by the Constitution. 
„ ,. One who acted for the Constitution at the time, 

Constitu- ' 

tionai and who wrote of it in after years, — Jeremy Bel- 
wii ings. i^j^jjp^ ti^gj-j j^ clergyman of Boston, — tells a story 
illustrating the changing tempers of the period. A man has 
a new pair of small-clothes brought home to him. " It is too 
small here, says he, and wants to be let out ; it is too big 
here, and wants to be taken in. I am afraid there will be a 
hole there, and you must put on a patch ; this button is not 
strong enough — you must set on another." But, taking 
his wife's advice, he tried on the garment, and found him- 
self satisfied. The constitutional writings, as they may be 
called, of the twelvemonth succeeding the Convention, were 
far in advance of any preceding productions of America. 
The greatness of the cause called forth new powers of 



292 PART III. 1763-1797. 

mind, nay, new powers of heart. Washington's letters 
upon the subject overflow with emotions such as his calm 
demeanor had seldom betrayed before. Under the signa- 
ture of Publius, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and 
John Jay united in the composition of the Federalist. It 
was a succession of essays, some profound in argument, 
others thrilling in appeal, and all devoted to setting forth 
the principles and foretelling the operations of the Consti- 
tution. Under the signature of Fabius, John Dickinson — 
the same wliose Farmer's Letters had pleaded for liberty 
twenty years before — now pleaded for constitutional gov- 
ernment. It was not merely the Constitution that was tlius 
rendered clear and precious. The subject was as wide as 
the rights of man. 
, , ,. So stronof and so wise exertion was not in vain. 

Adoption ^ 

by the State after state, beginning with Delaware, (De- 
cember 7, 1787,) assented to the Constitution, some 
by large, some by exceedingly small majorities. In most 
of the bodies by which the ratification was declared, a series 
of amendments was framed and passed. North Carolina 
assented only on condition of her amendments being adopt- 
ed. In one of the state Conventions, New York, the recom- 
mendation of another general Convention Avas pressed upon 
the nation. New York was the scene of more decided 
demonstrations. The list of what can be called riots 
througliout the country, at the time, begins and ends with a 
collision between two bands of the rival parties, at Albany, 
and the destruction of the type in an anti-federalist news- 
paper estabhshment at New York, (July 4-27, 1788.) 
The project of a second Convention found favor in Pennsyl- 
vania. It was then taken up by the assembly of Virginia, 
but after the Convention of that state had accepted the Con- 
stitution. In seeing these states arrayed in greater or less 
stnnigth against the Constitution, one is struck by their 



THE CONSTITUTION. 293 

being large states, to which the Constitution was supposed 
to be particularly acceptable. The other of the largest 
states, Massachusetts, had but a bare majority to give in 
favor of the Constitution. On the other hand, several of 
the small states M^ere now the most earnest supporters of 
federalist principles. The causes of this revolution were 
chiefly local. But, actuated by different motives, the large 
states, or rather the parties in the large states, opposing the 
unconditional adoption of the Constitution, were unable to 
combine with any effect. The generous impulses and the 
united exertions of their opponents carried the day. Only 
North Carolina and Rhode Island stood aloof, and the 
former but partially, when Congress performed the last act 
preliminary to the establishment of the Constitution, by 
appointing days for the requisite elections and for the or- 
ganization of the new government, (September 13, 1788.) 

Thus was completed the most extraordinary 
of the transaction of which merely human history bears 
transac- record. A nation enfeebled, dismembered, and 

tion. ' ; ' ' 

dispirited, broken by the losses of war, by the dis- 
sensions of peace, incapacitated for its duties to its own citi- 
zens or to foreign powers, suddenly bestirred itself and 
prepared to create a government. It chose its representa- 
tives without conflicts or even commotions. They came 
together, at first only to disagree, to threaten, and to fail. 
But against the spells of individual selfishness and sectional 
passion, the inspiration of the national cause proved potent. 
The representatives of the nation consented to the measures 
on which the common honor and the common safety de- 
pended. Then the nation itself broke out in clamors. 
Still there was no violence, or next to none. No sort of 
contention arose between state and state. Each had its own 
differences, its own hesitations ; but when each had decided 
for itself, it joined the rest and proclaimed the Constitution, 
25* 



294 PART III. 1763-1797. 

„ The work thus achieved was not merely for tlie 

F>yinpa- 'i 

thy for nation that achieved it. In the midst of their 
■ doubts and their dangers, a few generous spirits, if 
no more, gathered fresh courage by looking beyond the 
limits of their country. Let Washington speak for them. 
" I conceive," says he, " under an energetic general govern- 
. ment, such regulations might be made, and such measures 
taken, as would render this country the asylum of pacific 
and industrious characters from all parts of Europe," — "a 
kind of asylum," as he says in another place, " for man- 
kind." It was not, therefore, for America alone that her 
sons believed themselves to have labored, but for the world. 
Literature ^^ ^^'^ already appeared that the writings of the sol- 
of the diers and the statesmen of the period were, in many 

revolu- . , ... , . . r^, 

tionand mstanccs, as important as their actions. There" 
the Con- ^gre Other writers, who stood conspicuous, solely or 
almost solely, on account of their literary exertions. 
Such was Thomas Paine, an Englishman, whose pamphlet 
of Common Sense (1776) had so great an eflPect that its 
author, though then but a few months in the country, pre- 
tended afterwards to have started the revolution. His 
later pamphlets, issued during the war under the name of 
the Crisis, were of equal power. Amongst the American 
authors were John Trumbull, of Connecticut, whose poem 
of McFingal (begun 1774) was a satire at once upon his 
countrymen and upon their foes ; Francis Hopkinson, of 
Philadelphia, who, after various productions in prose and in 
rhyme relating to the Avar, came to the aid of the Constitu- 
tion in an allegory entitled the New Roof; and Philip Fre- 
ngau, of New York, whose verses upon the battles of the 
revolution were amongst the most popular and the most 
artistic compositions of the times. The influence of such a 
literature may be conceived. It spread the stirring spirit 
of the camp and of the council around the fireside and 



THE CONSTITUTION. 295 

within the closet, kindling sympathy, arousing action, and 
thus contributing largely to the national redemption. 

Nor should we foraret, in this connection, the in- 

The niu- ° ' ' 

sic of Bii- fluence of the first of our composers, William Bil- 
'"^'^" lings, a Bostonian. Such was his enthusiasm at 
once for his art and for his country, that, though almost 
uneducated as a musician, he moved piany a spirit by his 
ardent strains. His melodies were heard on the march and 
on the battle field as well as in the choir ; such as his Inde- 
pendence and his Columbia may be called psalms of the 
revolution and of the Constitution. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Washington's Administration. 
„ , . The name of Wasliinf]^ton was almost a part of 

Washing- ^ '- 

ton pres- the Constitution. " The Constitution would never 
have been adopted," — thus Edmund Randolph, by 
no means a strong adherent to Washington, wrote to him 
afterwards, — " but from a knowledge that you had once 
sanctioned it, and an expectation that you would execute 
k." " The Constitution," Lafayette wrote at once from 
Paris, " satisfies many of our desires ; but I am much mis- 
taken if there are not some points that would be perilous, 
had not the United States the happiness of possessing their 
guardian angel, who will lead them to whatever still remains 
to be done before reaching jierfection." Such was the 
universal voice of the nation, and of the nation's well 
wishers. The presidential electors gave in their votes 
without a single exception in favor of Washington ; and he 
consented to what he had reason to call " this last great 
sacrifice." " I bade adieu to Mount Vf»rnon," he writes in 
his diary, " to private life, and to domestic felicity ; and 
with a mind oppressed with more anxious aid painful sen- 
sations than I have words to express, set out v.^ith the best 
disposition to render service to my country in obedience 
to its call, but with less hope of answering its expecta- 
tions." 

The two houses of Congress had been organized in New 

(296> 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 2S7 

York, after a month's delay.* A day or tAvo before 
tion of Washington's arrival, John Adams took his place as 
govern- y-^^g president. The inauojuration of the presi- 

ment. ^ ° ^ 

dent, postponed a few days after he was ready for 
the ceremony, at length completed the organization of the 
government, (April 30, 1789.) 

„ , . It was one thin2r for Washinsjton to receive the 
ty of the homages of his countrymen, on his journey to the 

seat of government, and on his entrance into office 
there ; all this was smiling to the eye, and full of promise 
to the ear. But it was another thing to remember the 
weaknesses and the divisions of the nation ; to behold the 
present sources of peril ; and to feel that the Constitution 
was still an untried instrument, unmoved, perhaps unmov- 
able. "Whatever has been said of the solemnity of former 
periods, or of former duties, must be repeated with stronger 
emphasis of the work now before Washington and his 
coadjutors. Of far greater difficulty than the formation of 
the Constitution was the setting it in operation. Washing- 
ton knew it all. And almost the first words which broke 
from his lips, as president of the United States, were words 
of prayer. " It Avould be peculiarly improper," he said at 
the beginning of his inaugural speech, " to omit in this first 
official act my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being 
who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils 
of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every 
human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the 
liberties and happiness of the people of the United States, 
a government instituted by themselves for these essential 
purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its 

* March 4 being tlie appointed day; and the House not having a 
quorum till March 30, the Senate none till April 6. 



298 PART III. 1763-1797. 

administration to execute with success the functions allotted 
to his charge." 

Washing- lu the samc sjDirit Washington invoked the sup- 
fciiow ^ '^ P*^^'^ ^^ those around him, not merely as his fellow- 
Chris- countrymen, but as his fellow-Christians. Among 
all the addresses hailing his accession to the presi- 
dency, from political and industrial, from literary and scien- 
tific bodies, none seemed to please him more than those 
received from reljgious organizations. In his replies, he 
remarks upon his need of their sympathies and prayers. 
Convinced that nothing could so bind the nation together 
as charity amongst the different branches of Christians, he 
insists upon it with peculiar earnestness. In an address to 
his own church, the Protestant Episcopal, he expresses his 
joy " to see Christians of different denominations dwell 
together in more charity, and conduct themselves in respect 
to each other with a more Christian-like spirit, than ever 
they have done in any former age or in any other nation." 
To the church that had been an object of persecution 
tlirough the whole colonial period, the Roman Catholic, 
the president wrote as follows : "• I hope ever to see 
America among the foremost nations in examples of justice 
and liberality. And I presume that your fellow-citizens 
will not forget the patriotic part which you took in the 
accomplishment of their revolution, and the establishment 
of their government." 

The n.i- These principles, so far above any of a merely 
tjon. political character, were to be applied to a nation 
now numbering nearly four milHons.* This was the popu- 
lation of all the thirteen states. The Constitution, as will 
be recollected, went into operation with the assent of but 



* The census of 1790 gave, whites, 3,172,464 ; free blacks, 59,466 ; 
slaves, 697,897 : total, 3,929,827. 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 

eleven. North Carolina acceded in eight months, (No^ 
ber 13 ;) Rhode Island in fifteen, (May 29, 1790.) 

The great feature of the opening years of A^' 
Confess, ii^gton's administration was the work of Cong 
The de- tlic body upon whose laws the government dep 
ments ed for movement, if not for life. The departn: 
an.i the ^ygj.g organized ; one of state, one of the treat 

jiulitiary. ° 

and one of war ; each being under the control 
secretary. The three secretaries, with an attorney gen 
constituted the cabmet of the president ; the postnu 
general not being a cabinet officer until a later .pe 
Washington appointed Thomas Jefferson the first secre 
of state, Alexander Hamilton the first secretary of 
treasury, Henry Knox the first secretary of war, 
mund Randolph the first attorney general, and Sai 
Osgood the first postmaster general, (September, 17 
At the same time, he made his appointments for the ol 
of the judiciary ; Congress having created a Supi 
Court, with Circuit and District Courts appended. « 
Jay was the first chief justice of the United States. 

Congress had already launched into constitu 
ments to al discussious. The amendments to the Con? 
the Con- ^j^^^ proDOScd bv tlic different states, were nume 

stitution. ' 1 1 .7 ' 

enough — fifty and upwards — to call for earl; 
tention. It was not suggested either by the states oi 
their congressional representatives, to make any fundai 
tal alterations in the Constitution. The old federal, 
the anti-federalist party, from whom most of the am 
ments came, asked for no subversion of the national sys 
They were contented with a few articles, declaring 
states and the people in possession of all the powers 
all the rights not expressly surrendered to the ger 
government. These articles, to the number of ten, -^ 
adopted by Congress, and accepted by the states. 



300 PART III. 1763-1797. 

A far more vital matter was the revenue. To 

Rcventie. , 

this Congress addressed itself in the first weeks of 
the session. The result of long and difficult debates was 
the enactment of a tariff, intended to serve at once for 
revenue and for protection of domestic interests. A ton- 
nage duty, with great advantages to American shipping, 
was also adopted. Some time afterwards, indeed towards 
the close of the first Congress, an excise was laid on domes- 
tic spirits. These measures were modified at intervals. 
But beneath them, in all their forms, there continued the 
principle, that the duties upon imports were to provide for 
government in the shape of a revenue, and for the nation 
in the shape of protection. It was no time for free trade. 
It fell to the first Congress, likewise, to provide 

for the public credit. The debts of the Confedera- 
tion amounted to fifty-four millions of dollars, or to eighty 
millions if the debts of the states, incurred for general 
objects, were added. It was the plan of Hamilton, secre- 
tary of the treasury, that these debts should be taken as a 
whole to be assumed and funded by the new government. 
All sorts of opinions were started. Agreeing that the 
foreign debt should be treated in the manner proposed, the 
members of Congress were altogether at variance upon the 
subject, first, of the domestic debt due from the Confeder- 
ation itself, and second, of the debt due from the separate 
states of the Confederation. On the first point, it was 
argued by a large number, that the certificates of the 
public debt were no longer in the hands of the original 
holders, and that to fund them at their par value Avas 
simply to put money into the pockets of speculators to 
whom the first holders had transferred them at great sacri- 
fices. On the second point, that of assuming the state 
debts, the opposition was still more earnest, especially from 
the representatives of those states whose exertions during 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 301 

the war of the revolution had been comparatively limited. 
It was a matter, moreover, to be supported or opposed 
according to the various views of the state and the national 
governments. They who, like the proposer of the system, 
desired to see the national government strong, advocated its 
being made the centre of the public credit ; while they 
M^ho inclined to the rights of the states, preferred to have 
the debt remain in state rather than in national stocks. 
Manner '^^^^ qucstion was uot dccidcd upon any abstract 
of do- grounds. It had been a bone of contention where 
the seat of the general government should be locat- 
ed, some going for one place and some for another. When 
the House of Representatives decideil against assuming the 
state debts, the advocates of the assumption hit upon the 
plan of securing the necessary votes from some of the 
Virginian or Maryland members, by consenting to fix the 
projected capital on the Potomac* The bait was snapped 
at, and a measure on which the honor of the states, if not 
of the nation,, depended, passed by means of unconcealed 
intrigue. The state debts were then assumed, not in mass, 
but in certain proportions. This being the chief object of 
altercation, the funding of the domestic and foreign debt of 
the general government was rapidly completed, (August 4, 
1790.) The transaction was by no means to the satisfac- 
tion of the entire nation. Even Virginia, whose represen- 
tatives had voted for the scheme, considering their state to 
be amply repaid by the location of the capital on the 
Potomac, declared against the whole system, save only that 
part relating to the foreign debt. The funding of the 
general domestic debt was pronounced to be " dangerous to 
the rights, and subversive of the interests, of the people ; " 
while that of the state debts was " repugnant to the Consti- 
tution." The 0[)position did not end here. 

* Philadelphia to be the capital until 1800. 

26 



302 PART III. 1763-1797. 

Niiiiouai The public creditor.'^, on tlie otlier hand, were de- 
bank, lighted. All the moneyed interests of the country, 
indeed, were quickened, the public bonds being so much 
additional capital thrown into the world of industry and of 
commerce. The creation of a national bank, with the design 
of sustaining the financial operations of government, took 
place in the early part of the following year, (1791.) On 
the opening of the subscription books, a signal proof of the 
confidence now placed in the national credit was given, the 
whole number of shares offered being taken up in two 
hours. At the same time, the number and the earnestness 
of the party averse to these movements of the government 
were increased by the success with which they were attended. 
It had been made a question in the very cabinet of the pres- 
ident, by Jeiferson and Randolph, whether the charter of the 
bank was not beyond the limits of the Constitution. Wash- 
ington himself had liesitated to approve the act of Congress. 
The construction of the Constitution was one of 

Parties. . , . , , 

the pomts on which parties were now contending. 
It was a natural principle with the federalists that the Con- 
stitution should be interpreted freely; that is, in such a 
way as to give the government the full measure of its 
powers. On the other hand, the anti-federalists were for 
limiting the provisions of the Constitution, if not as far as 
possible, at least as far as they thought required by the 
independence of the states and of the people. Every sub- 
ject brought before Congress excited questions of congres- 
sional powers. The organization of the government, the 
creation of a tariff, of a national debt, and, as just men- 
tioned, of a bank, all were argued for or against, according 
to the different views of the work to be done by Congress. 
Party spirit, however, was by no means confined to consti- 
tutional arguments. It appeared on every occasion, charg- 
ing the federalists, now the dominant class, with monarchic 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 303 

cal schemes as their ends, and with corrupt deahngs as then* 
means ; while the anti-federalists, who took the name of re- 
publicans, were accused of tendencies to intrigue and to 
sedition. So violent was the temper on both sides, that the 
cry went up of separation from the Union. This, too, 
when the Union was but just formed. 

Es eciaii ^^^ ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ passions SO prcmaturclj exploding, 
north and nonc wcrc SO threatening as those of the north and 

the south. The same division that had been ob- 
served to be wider than any other before the Constitution, 
continued wider than any still. Even the controversies 
between the federalists and the republicans were not so 
great or so absorbing as to crowd out the matters of dis- 
sension between the Southern and the Northern States. 
Nay, the divisions of the two portions of the country were 
rather enhanced by those between the two parties; for 
although there were many republicans in the north and 
many federalists in the south, yet the south, as a general 
rule, was republican, and the north federalist. This was 
inevitable. The interests of the northern industry, its ship- 
ping, its commerce, and its manufactures, called for a very 
different policy on the part of the government from that 
demanded by the southern agriculture. 

The great line of distinction was run by slavery, 
concern- The points of tliis thomy subject, so for from being 
ing sia- smoothed by the compromises of the Constitution, 

stood up as bristling as ever. In the very first year 
of the new government, there came petitions from the 
Quakers of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey, ask- 
ing for the abolition of the slave trade. With this, as stated 
in the account of the Convention, Congress had no power to 
interfere for a period of twenty years. But the introduc- 
tion of the subject brought up a storm, as it was called by 
a member from Georgia, which lasted for days and even 



304 PART III. 1763-1797 

weeks, until the adoption of a committee's report that Con- 
gress had no authority over the slave trade, except with 
foreign countries, until 1808, the date prescribed by the 
Constitution. At the same time, all pretensions to control 
the treatment or the emancipation of slaves, in the states 
where they existed, were expressly abjured by Congress. 
This did not prevent an earnest Delaware Quaker from 
petitioning some two or three years afterwards for the abo- 
lition of slavery. The petition was returned to the peti- 
tioner, (November, 1792.) A later memorial, (January, 
1794,) from a convention of societies for the abolition of 
slavery, held at Philadelphia, asking Congress to take such 
measures as the Constitution allowed against the slave 
trade, resulted in an act proliibiting the trade with foreign 
lands. So far as related to the slave trade, there seems to 
have been no opposition on the part of the Southern States 
to its suppression. They were all moving more or less 
actively in the same direction.* What they opposed was 
the interference of Congress with slavery within the limits 
of the country. 

As to the ^^^ ^^^^^ particular point the opposing theories of 
teirito- after years were not yet distinctly formed. But 
there was an evident foreboding of future divisions. 
It was generally agreed that Congress had no power in 
relation to slavery in the states. But it was generally 
urged on one side, and by no means generally repelled on 
the other, that the existence of slavery, as of any other sys- 
tem, in the territories, did depend upon Congress. There 
were the clauses of the Constitution — "The Congress 
shall have power to dispose of, and make all needful rules 
and regulations respecting, the territory or other property 

* The tr^ic was prohibited in all the states by 1798. South Carolincw 
however, revived it in 1804. 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 305 

belonging to the United States ;" " New states may be admit- 
ted by the Congress into this Union." On these the oppo- 
nents of slavery relied, as empowering Congress to exclude 
the system from any territories to be organized, or any 
states to be admitted. The great precedent of the North- 
west Territory, where slavery was expressly prohibited by 
the Congress of the Confederation, was ratified by the first 
Congress under the Constitution. It claimed — so the north- 
ern men felt — to be not only ratified, but followed. That it 
might be followed, was distinctly amongst the apprehensions 
of the southerners, the more naturally from its having been 
proposed by one of themselves, Thomas Jefferson, as we 
have read, to exclude slavery from all the unsettled territo- 
ries. When North Carolina ceded her western lands to the 
Union, she did so on the express condition " that no regula- 
tion made or to be made by Congress shall tend to the 
emancipation of slaves," (1789.) 

Here was the starting point of all future strife, 
poilt of ^^ "^^'^^ ii^ *^^^ power of Congress to reject the pro- 

lutnre poscd Condition on the ground that its authority 

strife. ^ . . , , „ :; 

over the territories was not thus to be trammelled. 

Or it might have taken exactly the opposite ground, and 
declared that it had no right to impose any conditions 
upon the territories. Supposing either position to have 
been taken permanently, the question of slavery in the ter- 
ritories might have come up again. But the constitutional 
principle on which it could be decided as often as it re- 
currecl^ would have been established. Of all this there 
seems to have been little or no perception. Not even 
Washington — he who was so fixed against all sectional 
divisions — exerted himself to close this prolific source of 
bitterness and of contention. Congress accepted the cession 
of North Carolina, and organized the district as the Terri- 
tory South of the Ohio, (1790.) 
26* 



306 PART in. 1763-1797. 

Presiden- Mcanwliile the unity of the country, despite its 
tiai tours, parties and its broils, had been happily illustrated 
in the tours of the president. He first visited the New- 
England States, Rhode Island excepted,* (October, No- 
vember, 1789;) then lihode Island, (August, 1790;) and, 
lastly, the Central and Southern States, (April-June, 
1791.) No earthly potentate had ever received such hom- 
age as the republican magistrate, the revolutionary chief, 
the Christian man, all blended in Washington. It was a 
homage offered principally to the individual, but the light 
which shone about him was diffused over the nation of 
which he was the head and the representative. 
,„ , - The states had not been idle. They were learn- 

Work of •' 

the ing their new relations to the general government, 

and, through this, to one another. Within their 
own borders, much was to be done to set up the law that 
had been shaken and the order that had been disturbed for 
the ten, twenty, or even thirty years before. Many of the 
late Constitutions were remodelled, and some new ones 
were framed. 

Kew New states were presenting themselves for admis- 

states. g^Qjj jjj|.Q ^jjg YiYiQ of thc thirteen. The consent of 
New York having been obtained, Vermont was admitted, 
(March 4, 1791.) Provision was already made for the en- 
trance of Kentucky in the following year, (June 1, 1792.) 
The Territory South of the Ohio was subsequently admitted 
as the State of Tennessee, (June 1, 1796.) 

But the interest of the period was concentrated 

Dcpond- -r. 1 • • n ^ 

i ence upon o^i the general government. By this, it was lelt, 

^ • "vvashiiig- ^^^^ jjq|. ijy ^j^y local authorities or any local move- 

] ments, the difficulties of the nation were to be met 

^ and overcome. The general government itself was concen- 



1] 



* Not then a member of the Union. 



« WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 307 

trated in "Washington. They wlio deny him power of char- 
acter, acknowledging his excellence and his judiciousness, 
without acknowledging his inspiration of thought and his 
energy of action, may turn to the group gathered at Phila- 
delphia, the capital, and see the eyes of their heroes, fed- 
eralist or republican, northerner or southerner, all fixed on 
Washington for protection, especially as the four years of 
his .presidency drew to a close. Jefferson, the head of the 
republicans, wrote to him, " The confidence of the whole 
Union is centred in you. Your being at the helm will be 
more than an answer to every argument which can be used 
to alarm and lead the people in any quarter into violence or 
secession. North and south will hang together, if they 
have you to hang on." " It is clear," wrote Hamilton, the 
leader of the federalists, "that a general and strenuous 
effort is making in every state to place the administration 
of the national government in the hands of its enemies, as 
if they were its safest guardians ; that the period of the 
next House of Representatives is Hkely to prove the 
crisis of its permanent character ; that, if you continue in 
ofhce, nothing materially mischievous is to be apprehended 
— if you quit, much is to be dreaded." Randolph, the 
attorney general, — a sort of leader to a middle party, 
neither wholly federalist nor wholly republican, — was 
equally pressing. " The fuel," he wrote to Washington, 
" which has been already gathered for combustion, wants 
no addition. But how awfully might it be increased, were 
the violence which is now suspended by a universal sub- 
mission to your pretensions let loose by your resignation ! " 
Thus urged, Washington could do no less than accept the 
unanimous summons to another term of labor for his coun- 
try. Adams was again chosen vice president, (1792-93.) 

There was one thing over which Washington had no 
influence. The animosity of parties had spared him, but 



308 PART III. 1763-1797. • 

. . without beinsj cliecked by him. He vainly exerted 

ity of par- himsclf to kccp thc peace, even in his own cabinet. 
Jefferson and Hamilton were at swords' points, and 
at swords' points they remained until Jefferson retired, 
(1794.) In Congress, all was uproar. The slightest ques- 
tion sufficed to set the northerner against the southerner, 
the federalist against the republican. Out of Congress, the 
. tumult was increasing; Influences to which we must revert 
had swelled the dissensions of the nation with " very dif- 
ferent views," as Washington wrote, " some bad, and, if I 
might be allowed to use so harsh an expression, diabolical." 
A new party, chiefly from the republican ranks, had gath- 
ered, under the name of democrats, in societies of which 
the model was taken from abroad, and which, as Washing- 
ton wrote, might " shake the government to its foundation." 
The fearful passion of the time at length broke 

Insurrec- . . . /» i • 

tion ill out in insurrection. In consequence oi the excise 
Pennsyi- ypQj^ clomestic Spirit^, some parts of the country 
where distillation was common had been greatly 
discontented. North Carolina and Pennsylvania, or rather 
the interior counties of those states, had been agitated to 
sucli a degree, that the president deemed it necessary to 
issue a proclamation, calling upon his fellow-citizens to 
support the laws, (1792.) The excitement gradually sub- 
sided, except in Pennsylvania, where, after various acts of 
violence, an armed convention, seven thousand strong, met 
at Braddock's Field, (August, 1794.) The president of 
this assembly was a Colonel Cook, the secretary, Albert 
Gallatin, a Swiss emigrant ; and the commander of the 
troops a lawyer -named Bradford. Of course, the objects 
of so large a body were various ; some being intent merely 
upon suspending the collection of the 'excise, while others 
meditated the possession of the country, and separation 
from the Union. The president at once put forth a proCla- 



WASHINGTOlf'G iVDMINISTRATION. SCO 

Biatlon, " warning the insurgents to desist from their oppo- 
sition to the laws." Commissioners were at the same tjme 
appointed to proceed to the scene of disturbance, and per- 
suade the actors to return to their duty. It being found, 
however, that nothing but force, or the show of force, would 
put down the insurrection, another proclamation was pub- 
lished, announcing the march of fifteen thousand militia 
from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia. 
The president himself took the field for a few days ; buf 
finding that the insurgents had disappeared before the 
apjiroach of his troops, he left his officers — General Henry 
Lee, governor of Virginia, being commander-in-chief — to 
complete the work that was no sooner begun than it was 
ended. A considerable number of prisoners was taken ; 
but no executions followed, (November.) Enough had 
been done to decide " the contest," as Washington described 
it, " whether a small proportion of the United States shall 
dictate to the whole Union." 

Indian The same year (1794) witnessed the suppression 

wars. Qf .^ danger, half domestic and half foreign — a 
long-continued Indian war. It broke out, four years before, 
on the attempt of various western tribes to recover the 
country as far as the Ohio. A thousand men, partly United 
States troops, and partly mihtia from Pennsylvania and 
Kentucky, were sent into the heart of the hostile region. 
Two detachments, under Colonel Hardin, fell into ambus- 
cades ; while the main body, under General Harmer, 
marched, countermarched, and at length retreated, (1790.) 
The next year, after several incursions of volunteers into 
the Indian territory, an army of some two thousand, under 
General St. Clair, started, late in the autumn, to reduce -the 
enemy. Delayed by the construction of forts, the troops 
were advancing but slowly, when they were surprised in 
camp, and utterly routed by tjic Indians, (1791.) Two 



SIO PART III. 1763-1797. 

years passed in fruitless attempts at negotiation. An army 
of three or four thousand, slowly enlisted under the com- 
mand of General Wayne, the hero of Stony Point, at 
length proceeded to more decisive measures. Spending the 
winter and the spring in camp, Wayne took the field in the 
following summer. Securing his rear by forts along the 
route which he pursued, he overtook and completely van- 
quished the Indians, driving them from their posts, and 
'laying w^aste their fields, (1794.) A treaty made with 
Wayne a year afterwards (1795) renounced the claims 
wdiich had led the unhappy Indians into war. There still 
remained upon the south-western borders the restless tribes 
that had taken up arms from time to time during the war 
with their brethren of the north-west. Peace with them 
was made a year later, (1796.) In both treaties, the United 
States took an attitude never before assumed by the whites, 
as a nation, towards the red man. The truth that the 
Indians -were not the aggressors so much as the borderers, 
nay, the United States themselves, seems to have been 
tacitly recognized by the indemnities to the conquered or 
the pacified tribes. 

Indian It was equally new in the history of the Indian 

interests, j-^cc, that the wdiitc men should unite nationally in 
supplying their wants and improving their relations. No 
part of Washington's administration, domestic or foreign, 
w^as more original or more benign than the policy which he 
constantly urged towards the Indians of the United States. 
To save them from the frauds of traders, a national system 
of trade was adopted. To protect them from the aggres- 
sions of borderers, as w^ell as to secure them in the rights 
allowed them by their treaties, a number of laws were pre- 
jiared. " I add with pleasure," said the president in one 
of his later addresses to Congress, " that the probability of 
their civilization is not diminished by the experiments which 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 311 

have been thus far made under the auspices of government. 
The accompHshment of this work, if practicable, will reflect 
undecaying lustre on our national character, and administer 
the most grateful consolation that virtuous minds can know," 
(December, 1795.) 

Among the agents employed by the administra- 
weider, tion in dealing with the Indians was a remarkable 
the mis- ij^r^Yi, John Heckeweldcr, born in EnHand, of 

sionary. 07. 

German parentage, came to Pennsylvania in his 
youth, and there in his early manhood became a missionary 
of the United Brethren, or Moravians, amongst the Dela- 
wares and the Moliegans, (1771.) His life thenceforward 
was devoted to the Indians. He preached to them, that 
they might be converted to God. . He wrote of them, that 
they might be respected of men. " I still indulge the 
hope," he wrote in his old age, " that this work [for the 
Indians] will be accomplished by a wise and benevolent 
government." 

„ ., ^ A far more savage foe than the Indian was 

to Ai- appeased at the same period, but with much less 
*'''^^" credit, it must be added, to the nation. This was 
the Dey of Algiers, who, with a number of neighbors like 
himself, Avas wont to sweep the seas with piratical craft. 
Singular to say, the sway of these buccaneering potentates 
was acknowledged by the European states, who paid an 
annual tribute on condition of their commerce being spared. 
Ten years before the present date, the freebooters of the 
Dey of Algiers had captured two American vessels, and 
thrown their crews into bondage. He now (1795) consent- 
ed to release his captives, and to respect the merchantmen 
of the United States, on the reception of a tribute like that 
received from the powers of Europe. Three quarters of 
a million were paid down ; an annual payment of full 
fifty thousand dollars being promised in addition. Other 



312 PART III. 1763-1797. 

treaties of the same sort with Tripoli and Tunis were 
under way. 

rorei<-n The relations of the United States with civilized 
relations, natious wero hardly more satisfactory. The mon- 
archies of Europe looked down, if they looked at all, upon 
the infant republic, of which many of them really knew 
almost nothing. What was of vast moment to a people 
rising out of depression and of obscurity, was a trifle in the 
eyes of old states, accustomed to deal with great interests 
and with great resources. Their relations with America 
were matters of little concern to them. On the other hand, 
the relations of America to them, or to some of them, 
formed the cliief point of attention and of exertion with 
the American nation for a quarter of a centur}^ 

We must ffo back to days over which we have 

Commer- ^ -' 

ciai trea- passed, in order to see how the United States pre- 
sented themselves to the older nations. " Our 
fathei^," said John Quincy Adams, himself a foreign min- 
ister under Washington, " extended the hand of friendship 
to every nation on the globe." Their first treaty,* the one 
with France, in which the affairs of commerce and of peace 
were mingled with those of alliance and of war, was fol- 
lowed by one Avith Prussia, (1785.) " This," remarked 
Adams, " consecrated three fundamental principles of for- 
eign intercourse. First, equal reciprocity and the mutual 
stipulation of the commercial exchanges of peace ; second- 
1}^, the abolition of private war on the ocean ; and thirdly, 
restrictions favorable to neutral commerce upon belligerent 
parties with regard to contraband of war and blockades. 
These ijrincii^les were assumed as cardinal points of tKe 
policy of the Union." It was a policy, however, in per- 
petual collision with tRe usages and prerogatives of the 
European powers ; so much so, that, though the young 
nation held out an open hand, it was met by contracted 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 31o 

grasps. The state of things will appear as we go on to the 

negotiations of Washington's administration. 

,^ , One of the first to come into more settled rela- 

Trcaty 

with tions with the new government was Spain. That 
^'""' power, through its colonial authorities in Florida, 
had been supposed to be tampering with the southern 
Indians. On the other hand, it was notorious that several 
expeditions from the southern and western frontiers were 
planned against the Spanish territory. All the while, the 
dividing line between Florida and the United States was 
unsettled, and the claim to the navigation of the Missis- 
sippi undetermined. Finally, a special envoy, Thomas 
Pinckney, was sent to Spain. It took him nearly a year 
to bring about a treaty defining the Florida boundary, 
and opening the Mississippi to the United States, (1795.) 
Even then the Spaniards delayed to fulfil ^orovisions in 
which they took but small interest. 

The relations with Spain were bad enou^^h. But 

Eolations ^ ^ ^_ ° 

Mith those with Great Britain and France were worse, 
ilrituhi ^^^ must speak of these nations together, since it 
and was their common, rather than their separate, influ- 
ences which operated to the extent that is ^o be 
described. Side by side, in the first place, were the feelings 
of amity to France and of animosity to Britain ; the seeds 
were planted in war, and their growth was not checked in 
peace. Britain continued to wear the aspect of an antago- 
nist, keeping her troops upon the United States territory 
until her demands were satisfied, while on the other side 
of the sea she laid one restraint after another upon com- 
merce, as if she would have kept the Americans at a 
distance from her shores. France, on the contrary, was 
still the friend of the rising nation, and not only as its 
patron, but as its follower. The same year that Washing- 
ton entered the presidency, the French revolution began. 
27 



314 PART III. 1763-1797. 

Its early movements, professedly inspired by those tliat 
had taken place in America, kindled all the sympathies of 
American hearts. Hitherto, the bond between them and 
the French was one of gratitude and of dependence ; now 
it was one of sympathy and of equality. 

But we are not to imaa;ine our ffithers to have 

Parties f 

tiiere- harmouizcd upon these points any more than upon 
*'^''"' the others that have been noticed. The nation was 
by no means unanimous against Great Britain, by no means 
unanimous for France. Deep, indeed, but still in action, 
were the sentiments of former times when France was the 
foe, and Britain the mother-land. To these a new impulse 
was given by the early excesses of the revolution. With 
their ideas of law and order, the Americans could not go 
along with the French, rioters from the first, and soon 
destroyers and murderers, rather than freemen. Many 
paused, and turning with^istrust from the scenes of which 
France was the unhappy theatre, looked with kinder emo- 
tions towards the sedater and the wiser Britain. It would 
be too much to say that this led to a British party ; but it 
did lead to a neutral one, while, on the other hand, a 
Fr(#ich party, applauding the license as well as the liberty 
of the revolution, clapped their hands the more enthusiasti- 
cally as the spectacle became wilder and bloodier. This 
party was the republican ; its more impetuous members 
being the democratic republicans. Their opponents were 
the federalists. The new dissensions came just in time to 
keep up the division between the two. Mere federalist and 
republican questions might have waned ; they were already 
less glowing than they had been. They were revived by 
the strife of the French with the anti-French party. 

Few had spoken of doing more than looking on at the 
events in Europe. Yet there wei-e some so excited, so 
maddened, as to be ready for any extremities, especially 



Wash in J 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION- 315 



when the France whom they worshipped declared 



ton inu- ^var against the Britain whom they abhorred. More 

claims t • -, -, i i • • i 

neutral- divided than ever, tlie nation was again close upon 
"^'- the breakers, when Washington — never greater, 

never wiser — issued his proclamation of neutrality, mak- 
ing it known " that the duty and interest of the United 
States require that they should with sincerity and good faith 
ado[)t and pursue a conduct friendly and impartial towards 
the belligerent powers," (April 22, 1793.) It is a memo- 
rable act in our history. 

Point Its purpose is not always rightly estimated. 

proposed. j^qq[^ r^f; iiiQ nation tasked to its utmost, one may 
almost sa}'-, to subdue a few Indian tribes, obliged to pay 
tribute to the Algerines, unable to keep the Spaniards to 
their obligations, and we shall not behold a power that could 
enter safely into European wars. If such a thing Avere 
attempted, it would be at the hazard of the independence 
that had been achieved. There were two risks ; one aris- 
ing from the certainty that the United States must be a 
subordinate ally in any war to which it became a party -f 
and the other, — a still graver one, — that the passions 
aroused by a foreign would find no vent but in a civil war. 
It was, as he said, " to keep the United States free," that 
Washington proclaimed neutrality. 

Mission The systcm was soon put to trial. France, hav- 
of Genet, jj-^g |3aptized hcrsclf a republic in the blood of her 
king, Louis XVL, sent a new minister to the United States 
in the person of citizen Genet. An enthusiastic represen- 
tative of his nation. Genet excited a fresh enthusiasm in 
the French party of America. Feasted at Charleston, 
where he landed, (April, 1793,) and at all the principal 
places on the route northward, he was led to" imagine the 
entire country at his feet, or at those of the French repub- 
lic. He began at Charleston to send out privateers, and to 



316 PART III. 1763-1797. 

order that their prizes should be tried and condemned by 
the French consuls in the United States. It was a part of 
the treaty of commerce between the two nations, that the 
privateers and prizes of the French should be admitted to 
the American ports. But Genet was soon to be checked, 
lie had not merely a divided people to deal with, but a 
government ; and although the government itself had its 
divisions, it was so far accordant as to oppose the ambassa- 
dor, to whom, on his arrival at Philadelphia, it stood ready 
to declare that whatever the treaty provided for, it did not 
provide for the commission of privateers or the condem- 
nation of prizes within American limits. This is not the 
place to describe the proceedings of so wild a personage 
as Genet. He did battle for his privateers and his 
courts ; appealed from the executive to Congress and 
the people ; and pursued so extreme a course as to set his 
supporters and his o})poncnts bitterly at variance. The 
French party now went openly for war against England. 
" Marat, Robespierre, Brissot, and the Mountain," says Vice 
President Adams, " were the constant themes of panegyric 
and the daily toasts at table. . . . Washington's house 
was surrounded by an innumerable multitude from day to 
day, huzzaing, demanding war against Engknd, cursing 
AVashington, and crying, ' Stjccess to the French patriots 
and virtuous republicans.' Frederic A. Muhlenberg, the 
speaker of the House of Representatives, toasted publicly, 
' The Mountain : may it be a pyramid that shall reach the 
skies.' " " I had rather be in my grave," exclaimed Wash- 
ington one day in great excitement, " than in my present 
situation." He was equal, however, and more than equal, 
to his duty and, supported by his cabinet, he sent to request 
the recall of Genet, (August.) As the party by which 
Genet had been commissioned had sunk to ruin, their suc- 
cessors readily appointed a minister o*' their own — citizen 
Fauchet. 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 317 

Great ^ut the troubles of the time were too compli- 

Britam cated to be reached by a mere chanGfe of ministers. 

and ^ ° 

Erance France had pronounced against the neutrahty of 
American -^^^^^^^ica, — not, uidecd, by direct menace or vio- 
neutrai- lence, but by ordering that neutral vessels, contain- 
* ^* ing goods belonging to her enemies, should be cap- 

tured, (May 1, 1793.) An embargo was then laid upon 
the shipping at Bordeaux. Both these measures were 
decided violations of the treaty with America. The most 
that France cfid, however, was as nothing compared with 
the extremes to which her chief enemy, Great Britain, 
resorted. France had ordered that the goods of an enemy 
were liable to capture. Great Britain now ordered that 
the goods of a neutral power, if consisting of provisions 
for the enemy, were to be captured or bought up, unless 
shipped to a friendly port, (June.) This was followed 
by an order that all vessels laden with the produce of a 
French colony, or with supphes for the same, were law- 
ful prizes, (November ;) a decree so arbitrary that it was 
soon modified by the nation that issued it, (January, 1794) 
Worse than all. Great Britain claimed the right to impress 
into her service every seaman of British birth, wherever 
he might be found ; so that the ships of the United States 
would be stopped, searched, and stripped of their crews, 
at the pleasure of the British cruisers. It often hap- 
pened that American sailors, as well as British, were the 
victims of this impressment. A thrill of indignation and 
of defiance against such proceedings ran through the 
Americans. They would have been less than freemen, 
less, even, than men, to have borne with such injuries in 
silence. 
Threat- ^j^g coursc of Great Britain is easily explained. 

ened war 

with Its rulers regarded the United States merely as a 
Britain Commercial people who were contributing to the 

27 * 



318 PART III. 1763-1797. 

resources of the enemy. Did they look upon the nation 
in any political hglit, they felt sure — thus Washington 
was informed from London — " that there was a party so 
decidedly in the British sentiment that bearing and forbear- 
ing would be carried to any length." But they were mis- 
taken. The very party most opposed to France were 
earnest in sustaining the necessity of preparations for war, 
defensive, indeed, but still war with Great Britain. A 
temporary embargo upon the American ports was voted by 
Congress, for the purpose of suspending commercial inter- 
course, (March, 1794.) The House of Representatives 
passed an act prohibiting all trade with Great Britain and 
her colonies, until she redressed the wrongs which she had 
perpetrated ; the act would have passed the Senate like- 
wise, but for the casting vote of the vice president, (April.) 
The partisans of the French were all alive for further 
action ; their opponents were hardly prepared to resist it. 
One step on the part of the executive, one hint that Wash- 
ington, the still trusted though still slandered magistrate, 
was in favor of arming, and the nation would have armed. 
With Great Britain, in all her might, for a foe, and with 
France, in all her blood-red despotism, for an ally, what 
would have been the war ! 

Mission One of Wasliingtou's secretaries, Jefferson, had 
of Jay. lately resigned his post, leaving his personal as well 
as political opponent, Hamilton, the head of the cabinet. 
To him, as the most eminent member of the administration, 
the president would have confided the special mission which 
it was 2^roposed to send to Great Britain. But Hamilton, 
as an extreme federalist, was too unacceptable to the great 
body of Congress and of the nation to be employed upon a 
service which of itself was an object of general distrust and 
aversion. Washington therefore selected Chief Justice Jay, 
(April, 1794.) It was a fitting choice, far more so than 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 319 

that of Hamilton. The secretary would have been the rep- 
resentative, not of the nation alone, but of the party which 
acknowledged him as its leader ; he was always a party 
man, whether in office or out of office. But the chief jus- 
tice, though a federalist, was no partisan. Amongst all the 
prominent figures of the time, Jay's is almost, perhaps alto- 
gether, the only one that stands close to Washington's, aloof 
from the tarnishes and the collisions of opposing parties. 
No other man was so fit to join with Washhigton in rescu- 
ing the nation from its present perils. 

iijg Accordingly, Jay proceeded to England, and, 

treaty, j^fj-gj. gome months of anxious diplomacy, obtained a 
treaty, (November.) It was not much to obtain. The 
United States agreeing to indemnify their British creditors. 
Great Britain consented to surrender the posts which she 
had so long held in the west.* She also promised indem- 
nity to the sufferers from her system of search and of cap- 
ture ; yet the system itself, though partially modified, was by 
no means renounced. A few concessions to the claims of 
American commerce were also made ; but the rigid policy 
of Britain, especially in relation to her colonial trade, was 
strongly maintained. In short, the treaty did not acknowl- 
edge the rights of the Americans as neutrals, or their privi- 
leges as traders ; both matters of the highest importance to 
their commercial interests. At the same time, the earlier 
points of controversy were determined, and from the later 
ones the sting was taken away, at least in some degree. So 
Jay thought, so Washington, though neither considered the 
treaty decidedly satisfactory. It w^as better, at any rate, 
they reasoned, than war. Thus, too, reasoned the Senate, 
who, convened in special session, advised the ratification of 
the treaty, (June, 1795.) 

* The surrender to take effect June 1, 1796. 



320 PART III. 1763-1797. 

Opposi- Not tlius, however, the nation. If the necessity 
tion. q£ ^i^g treaty, even as it stood, needed to be proved, 
the proof was the general insanity which it provoked. 
Meetings were held every where ; liarangues were made, 
resolutions passed ; copies of the treaty were destroyed ; Jay 
was burned in effigy. The French and the American flags 
waved together over these scenes ; while the British ensign 
Avas dragged through the dirt and burned before the doors 
of the British representatives. 

Eatiiica- -^^1 tliis, and more, if intended to intimidate gov- 
tiou. ernment, had a precisely contrary effect. " I have 
never," wrote Washington, " since I have been in the ad- 
ministration of the government, seen a crisis which is preg- 
nant with more interesting events, nor one from which 
more is to be apprehended." " Did the treaty with Great 
Britain," he asked afterwards, " surrender any right of 
which the United States had been in possession ? Did it 
make any change or alteration in the law of nations, under 
which Great Britain had acted in defiance of all the powers 
of Europe ? If none of these, why all this farrago ?" The 
French party were of course the active leaders in all dis- 
turbances. Their antagonists, certainly not a British party 
now, kept themselves in the background at first, but pres- 
ently rallied, not as a British, or even as an anti-French, so 
much as an American party, to the support of the presi- 
dent, assuring him and his government of the unabated con- 
fidence of the nation. At the same time, Jefferson's succes- 
sor, Randolph, being suspected of intrigue with the French 
minister, resigned his office, and in the reaction thus excited 
against the influence and the partisanship of France, the 
cabinet advised the ratification of the British treaty. It 
was done, (August.) 

Continued Opi)osition contiuucd. The Virginian legisla- 
opposition. i^j^e, approving the stand of their senators against 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION-. 321 

the treaty, refused to pass a vote of undiminished confidence 
in the president. If Virginia could thus turn away from 
the son to whom she had hitherto clung with all a mother's 
pride, the tone in other states may be conceived to have 
been even more expressive of disapprobation. But Vir- 
ginia was strongly republican and strongly French, conse- 
quently strongly anti-British. So far did the legislature go 
in its wrath, as to propose an amendment of tlie Constitu- 
tion, to the effect of requiring the assent of the House of 
Representatives before a treaty could be ratified, (Novem- 
ber.) The example of Virginia was imitated even in Con- 
gress, where the phrase of '' undiminished confidence " was 
stricken from an address of the house to the president, 
(December.) As the session progressed, a fierce struggle 
arose with respect to tl?e bills for carrying out the British 
treaty. The opponents of the treaty made it their first 
effort to obtain the papers relating to the transaction, on the 
plea that it lay with the House to consent or to refuse to ex- 
ecute the provisions of the treaty. A three weeks' debate 
terminated in a call upon the president for the specified 
documents. He and his cabinet being alike of opinion that 
the House had transgressed its powers, the call was refused. 
The House took the denial with a better grace than might 
have been anticipated; the leaders of the opposition now 
throwing their whole weight upon the point of defeating the 
bills on which the execution of the treaty depended. Nor 
was it until after a fortnight's debate, in which Fisher 
Ames distinguished himself above all his colleagues in 
defending the treaty, that a vote, by a bare majority, deter- 
mined that the House would proceed to its duty, (March, 
April, 1796.) By tliis time the frenzy out of doors had 
died away. 

The point Thus terminated the great event of Washington's 
gained, administration. Its course, so far as he was con- 



322 PART III. 1763-1797. 

cerned, followed precisely the principles with which he had 
entered office. In face of the parties that divided the 
country, in face of their feelings and their relations to Great 
Britain and France, Washington saw but one alternative — 
peace or war. And not peace or war with the stranger 
alone, but between citizen and citizen. Enough has been 
already said on the interests and the dangers involved in 
the decision. The proclamation of neutrality was the first 
decisive step, the treaty with Great Britain was the second, 
and, for the present, the last. The point thus gained may 
be called the starting point of the infant nation in its foreign 
relations. But hear Washington himself : "My ardent de- 
sire is, and my aim has been, to keep the United States 
free from political connections with every other country, to 
see them independent of all and undfer the influence of none. 
In a word, I want an American character, that the powers 
of Europe may be convinced we act for ourselves, and not 
for others. This, in my judgment, is the only way to be 
respected abroad and happy at home ; and not, by becoming 
the partisans of Great Britain or France, create dissensions, 
disturb the public tranquillity, and destroy, perhaps for- 
ever, the cement which binds the Union." 
Continued Things were far, however, from going smoothly. 
embarrass- What Washington wrote a few months before was 
fiom still true : " This government, in relation to France 
abroad. ^^^^ England, may be compared to a ship between 
tlie rocks of Scylla and Charybdis." The treaty being rat- 
ified, Charybdis was avoided. But Scylla rose the more 
frowningly. If the French party of the United States, if 
the minister of the United States to France, James Mon- 
roe, were indignant at the British treaty, it was but natural 
that France should be the same. The French government 
announced to Mr. Monroe that they considered their alli- 
ance with the Unfted States to be at an end, (February, 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 323 

1796.) The cliief reason was the treaty witli Great 
Britain ; but tlie list of grievances, then and afterwards 
fdled out, comprehended all the measures by which Ameri- 
can neutrality had been sustained. To prove that they 
were in earnest, the authorities of France, in addition to 
their previous orders of capture and embargo, decreed 
that neutral vessels were to be treated exactly as they were 
treated by the British ; that is, stopped, searched, aijd 
seized upon the seas, (July.) This was subsequently made 
known to the United States by a communication from the 
French envoy, Adet, (October,) who improved the oppor- 
tunity by appealing to the people to take part with France 
and against Great Britain, (November.) To restore mat- 
ters, as far as possible, to a better position, Washington had 
sent out Charles C. Pinckney as minister to France, in the 
place of Monroe, (September.) But the clouds that had 
been dissipated on the side of Great Britain were more 
than replaced by the ominous signs in the direction of 
France. 

And at It was Still worsc at home. The parties — north- 
iioine. gj.jj j^j^(j southern, federalist and republican, anti- 
French and French — that racked the nation were never 
so much agitated. " Until within the last year or two," 
wrote Washington, " I had no idea that parties would, 
or even could, go to the length I have been witness to." 
Congress was a continual battle ground. The federal 
party, falling into the minority in the House, and in danger 
of losing their majority in the Senate, fought, it may be 
literally said, on one side ; their opponents, the republicans, 
animated with the hope of the superiority, being equally 
pugnacious on the other. Newspapers, especially those 
published at Philadelphia, candied the hostile notes from 
Congress to the nation, and echoed them back to Congress. 
It is difficult, without having room for extracts, to convey 



32i TART III. 1703-1797. 

any Idea of the virulence of political writing at the time. 
Statesmanship disappears in partisanship, the love of coun- 
try in the hatred of countrymen. All this, while it demon- 
strated tlie wisdom of the administration or of its head, 
rendered the course of the administration doubtful and 
imperilled. In fact, both the administration and its head 
were objects of the fiercest assault. 
,• ^ Washinojton wrote with natural indication of 

Abuse of o ° 

Washing- the abusc which he, " no party man," as he truly 
called himself, had received, " and that, too, in such 
exaggerated and indecent terms as could scarcely be applied 
to a Nero, a notorious defaulter, or even to a common pick- 
pocket." It w^as amidst these outrages that Washington 
sent forth his Farewell Address to the people of the United 
States, (September 17, 1796.) Soon afterwards. Congress 
came together, and showed that many of its members were 
violent against the retiring president. On the proposal of 
an address of grateful acknowledgments from the House 
of Representatives, a man from Washington's own state, 
William B. Giles, of Virginia, took exception to the more 
expressive passages, saying, " If I stand alone in the opin- 
ion, I will declare that I am not convinced that the admin- 
istration of the government for these six years has been 
wise and firm. I do not regret the president's retiring 
from olfice." Giles w^as not alone. The same attitude was 
taken by a considerable number, and amongst them Andrew 
Jackson, of Tennessee, (December.) "Although he is 
soon to become a private citizen," wrote Washington of 
himself, (January, 1797,) "his opinions are to be knocked 
down, and his character reduced as low as they are capable 
of sinking it." Two months later, in the last hours of his 
administration, he said, " To the Avearied traveller, who sees 
a resting place, and is bending his body to lean thereon, I 
now compare myself; but to be suffered to do this in peace, 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 325 

is too much to be ciulured by some." If Wasliitigton could 
thus excite animosity and wrong, what must it liave been 
with ordinary men ? The country seemed unwilling to be 
pacified, unwilling to be saved. 

Washington retired. lie had done even greater 
ment of things at the head of the government than he had 
Washing- Jo^g ^i tl^g head of the army. But it w\as beyond 

ton. •' '' 

his power to change the character of the nation. 
He left it as he found it — divided and impassioned. Yet 
he left it as he had not found it — with a Constitution in 
operation, wdth principles and w^ith laws in action — on 
the road to increase and to maturity. " I can never be- 
lieve," Vv'ere almost his last words as president, " that Prov- 
idence, which has guided us so long, and through sucli a 
labyrinth, will withdraw its protection at this crisis." The 
day after writing this, he saw his successor, John Adams, 
inaugurated, (March 4, 1797.) 

One who had hailed the administration at its 

Lafayette. , . . , , i i i . 

begmnmg Avas not amongst those to behold its 
close. Lafayette was a prisoner at Olmiitz, under the 
power of Austria. But he was not forgotten. It is refresh- 
ing amidst the angry chaos of foreign controversies and of 
domestic struggles, to encounter Washington, not as the 
president, but as the American, wa-iting his " private letter," 
as he termed it, to the Emperor of Germany, " to recom- 
mend Lafayette to the mediation of humanity," and " to 
entreat that he may be permitted to come to this country," 
(May, 179G.) The effect of the appeal is not known ; but 
Lafayette was liberated not long afterwards. 
28 



PART IV 



THE GROWING NATION. 



1797-1850. 



(327) 



CHAPTER I. 

Foreign Aggressions. 
^ , ^ The contrast between tlie administration of 

Party aa- 

ministra- Wasliington and the administrations of his succes- 
sors is as wide as that between a nation and a 
party. He was the head of the nation ; they have been 
the heads of parties, as well as of the nation. First comes 
John Adams, the federalist, (1797;) then Thomas Jefferson, 
the republican, (1801 ;) then James Madison, likewise the 
republican, (1809.) Not one of these chief magistrates, it 
is true, was a mere partisan. Adams, the early champion 
of independence, was faithful to his principles of national- 
ity ; but he found himself dependent, not on the nation, but 
on a party, for support, and shaped his administration, as 
of necessity, by party lines. Not confining himself so 
strictly to these as the more ardent federalists demanded, 
they turned against him, and as the nation would not rally 
to his defence, he lost his reelection. Jefferson, vice presi- 
dent under Adams, was much more of a party leader. He 
had generous theories, indeed, but his practices did not 
always conform to them ; and though he began his admin- 
istration by declaring that " we are all republicans, all 
federalists," he never proved himself a federalist, nor did 
tlie federalists become republicans. Madison was a much 
less enthusiastic politician than his predecessors. He bowed 
to the signs of the times, and became not so much a party 
leader as a party follower. The point with all the three 
28 * (329) 



330 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

was, that they were chiefs of but a part of the nation, not 
of the whole. 

In this they were in harmony with those over 

Parties 

amongst whom they were called to rule. The people were 
the peo- (jivided into parties. So they had been under 
Washington ; but while he conducted affairs, there 
was at least one in power to whom patriotic men could look 
up without party feelings. With his successors, the case 
was different ; and though there might be a number in one 
place, or a number in another, whose sympathies were with 
the nation, rather than with any party, there was no one to 
be their representative or their example. The large major- 
ity, more deeply interested in political affairs than most 
men of the present day, broke u|) into divisions, full of 
earnestness for their own doctrines, full of wrath against 
all besides. 

Tarties '^^^® natural consequences followed. Even in 
in reia- relation to the foreign aggressions — which we shall 
foreic'ii soon bc tracing — parties will be found to have 
aggres- existed in all their force. If one nation dealt a 

sions. ■,■,.■, 

blow aganist the country, it was sure to be excused 
by one party ; if another did the same, there was another 
party to explain away the wrong. On the other hand, 
there were alwaj^s some to censure every act of one power, 
and others to denounce every measure of another power. 
So strong did these feelings become, that the subjects which 
called them forth took precedence of all others in the con- 
troversies of the time. Perhaps it was natural for the 
young nation to be more excited by the vast interests of its 
elders, than by its own comparatively petty concerns. At 
any rate, it was what foreign powers were doing, rather 
than what the United States had to do, which formed the 
staple of political action for the fifleen years (1797-1812) 
following the retirement of Washington. 



FOREIGN AGGRESSIONS. 331 

Missions Chief amongst the combatants in Europe, and 
to France, ^j^g aggressors against America, were Great Britain 
and France. For the moment, the delations with France 
occupied the foreground. Charles C. Pinckney, accredited 
by Washington to negotiate with the French government, 
was refused an audience at Paris ; and not only that, but 
was ordered to depart the French territory, (December, 
179G — February, 1797.) Notwithstanding this, notwith- 
standing the rapidly following decrees against American 
ships and American crews, President Adams sent out a 
new mission, consisting of Pinckney, John Marshall, and 
Elbridge Gerry, with moderate instructions, which, how- 
ever, availed nothing. Pinckney and Marshall, incensed 
by the intrigue as well as the insolence of which they were 
the objects, (October, 1797— April, 1798,) shook off the 
dust of France from their feet, being followed in a few 
months by Gerry, who had undertaken to do alone what 
he had not been able to do with his colleagues. 

Before the withdrawal of Pinckney and IMar- 
of tiio° shall, the intelligence of their treatment had thrown 
United the United States into a ffreat excitement. The ^ 

states. . ^ . # 

republicans taunted their opponents with the failure 
which they said they had predicted for the French missions. 
All the more bitter were the federalists, who inveighed 
against the venahty of the French government, some even 
going so far as to call for a declaration of war. The presi- 
dent leaned to the side of liis party. He liad no mind to 
declare war, but he recommended Congress to put the 
country in a state of defence, (March, 1798.) The recom- 
mendation was at once opposed by the republican leaders. 
According to Vice President Jefferson, indeed, the president 
was aiming at a dissolution of the Union or at the establish- 
ment of a monarchical government. But the federalists, 
upheld the president, and carried a series of measures pro- 



332 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

viding for the organization of a provisional army, as well 
as of a naval department, by which the existing navy might 
be more efficiently iHanaged, (May.) Orders were issued, 
directing tlie national ships to seize all armed vessels 
engaged in hostile acts against American shipping ; while 
merchantmen were authorized to arm themselves, and cap- 
ture their assailants upon the seas. But to prevent hostili- 
ties, as far as possible, commercial intercourse with France 
and her colonies was formally prohibited, (June.) Soon 
after, Washington was appointed to the command of the 
provisional army, (July.) The United States were fairly 
in arms. 

War followed at sea. No declaration was made ; 

War. 

the most that was done being to proclaim the trea- 
ties with France void, and then to authorize the president 
to send out national and to commission private vessels for 
the purpose of capturing any armed ships of the French, 
whether participating or not in hostilities, (July.) The 
seas were at once overrun with American ships, by which 
the French privateers were taken or driven from the coast. 
No actual engagement between national vessels, however, 
occurred, until the beginning of the following year, when 
Commander Truxtun, in the Constellation, forced the French 
frigate LTnsurgente to strike, (February, 1799.) Hostili- 
ties were continued chiefly by privateers, the profits to 
whose owners were the principal results of the war. Still 
it pleased the party by whom it was favored. " A glorious 
and triumphant war it was ! '* exclaimed Adams, in after 
years. " The proud pavilion of France was humiliated." 
strain ^^^ agaiust the deeds of battle must be set the 

upon the measures of government. These alone show the 

strain upon the nation. To provide ways and means, 
stamp duties and taxes on houses and slaves were voted, 
besides the loans that were procured. To keep down party 



FOREIGN AGGRESSIONS. 333 

opposition, alien and sedition acts, as they were called, were 
passed. The first authorized the j)resident to banish all 
aliens suspected of conspiracy against the United States. 
This was more of a party manoeuvre than appears Jon tlie 
face of it ; inasmuch as many of the most ardent spirits of 
the republicans, especially the democratic republicans, were 
aliens. The sedition act denounced tine and im[ risonment 
u])on all conspiracies, and even all publications, '' with 
intent to excite any unlawful combination for o})posing or 
resisting any law of the United States, or any lawful act 
of the president." Both these acts, however, Avere to be 
but temporary.* It was at midsummer that party spirit 
rose so high as to demand and to enact these urgent kiAvs, 
(June — July, 1798.) The ahen act was never put in 
operation. But the sedition act was again and again 
enforced, and almost, if not altogether invariably, upon 
jiarty grounds. It may safely be said that the nation -vtas 
straining itself too far. 

Nuiiifi- So thought the party opposing the administration 

cation, j^j-^j ^i^Q ^^r.^Y^ Strongest in the south and in the 
west, the republican leaders thuew down the gauntlet to 
their opponents, nay, even to their rulers. The legislature 
of Kentucky, in resolutions drawn up for that body by no 
less a person than Vice President Jefferson, declared the 
alien and sedition laws " not law, but altogether void and 
of no force," (November, 1798.) The note thus sounded 
was taken up in the Virginia legislature, whose resolutions, 
draughted by James Madison, declared the obnoxious laws 
" palpable and alarming infractions of the Constitution," 
(December.) Both sets of resolutions, as they came from 
the hands of their framers, were stronger still. Jefferson 



* The alien to be in force for two years, the sedition until March 4, 
1801, the end of Adams's administration. 



334 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

had written, " Where powers are assumed whicli have not 
been delegated, a nullifieation of the act is the riglit rem- 
edy, and every state has a natural right, in cases not within 
the compact, [the Constitution,] to nullify of their own 
authority all assumptions of power by others witliin their 
limits." Madison, after stating " that in case of a dehber- 
ate, palpable, and dangerous exercise of other powers not 
granted by the compact, the states, who are the parties 
thereto, have the right, and are in duty bound, to inter- 
pose for correcting the progress of the evil, and for main- 
taining within their respective limits the authorities, rights, 
and liberties appertaining to them," had made his resolu- 
tions declare the acts in question " null, void, and of no 
force or effect." But it was an early day for nullification ; 
and neither Kentucky nor Virginia went the length pre- 
scribed for them. They went far enough, as has been seen, 
tcf excite very general opposition from their sister states, 
especially those of the centre and the north, where legisla- 
ture after legislature came out with strong and denuncia- 
tory denials of the right of any state to sit in judgment upon 
the national government. • 

Another Things wcrc in this seething state, the factions on 
mission to both sidcs being at the height of their passions, 
when the president nominated a minister to France 
in the person of William Van Murray, to whom he after- 
Avards joined Oliver Ellsworth, then chief justice, and Wil- 
liam R. Davie, as colleagues, (February, 1799.) The 
reason assigned for a fresh attempt at negotiation was the 
assurance tliat had been received through Van Murray, 
then minister at the Hague, of the willingness of the French 
government to treat with a new mission. The instructions 
subsequently drawn up for the three envoys directed them 
to pursue a more dc^cided course tlian had been enjoined 
upon their predecessors; they were to insist u|K)n redress 



FOREIGN AGGRESSIONS. o35 

for the decrees and the captures of the French ; yet, unless 
received on their arrival at Paris, they were not to linger, 
but to demand their passports and abandon the mission. 
In all this, one finds it difficult to detect any thing unworthy 
of the nation. But the din upon the nomination of the em- 
bassy Avas tremendous. All the more active federalists, 
conspicuous amongst whom were the principal members of 
the cabinet, Timothy Pickering and Oliver AVolcott, cried 
out against the treachery of the president. It was treach- 
ery against their party rather than against their country, 
even in their own eyes ; but they were blinded by the polit- 
ical animosity that dazzled and bewildered almost all 
around them. The president himself was suspected of urg- 
ing the mission, in some degree, out of spite against the fed- 
eral party, by whom, or by whose extreme members, he 
considered himself badly used. " The British faction," he 
wrote afterwards, " was determined to have a war with 
France, and Alexander Ilamihon at the head of the army, 
and then president of the United States. Peace with 
France was therefore treason." "This transaction," he 
exclaimed in relation to the appointment of a new mission, 
" must be transmitted to posterity as the most disinterested, 
prudent, and successful conduct in my whole life ! " 

Deith of -^^ ^^^^ ^^"^^^ ^^ ^^^® 7^^^* — ^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^ close 
AVashing- of the ccutury which he adorned — Washington 

died, (December 14, 1799.) His retirement, to 
which he had looked forward so longingly, had been dis- 
turbed. He had been greatly occupied with the organiza- 
tion of the provisional army, of which he had been aj^pointed 
chief — the last of his many services to his country. He 
had been still more harassed by the party passions of the 
time ; himself inclined to the support of federalist prin- 
ciples, he had been to some degree drawn into the whirl of 
political movements. Perhaps it was not too soon for his 



336 PAllT IV. 1797-1 8J0. 

peace or for his fame that he was taken away. Beside his 
grave his countrymen stood united for an instant ; tlien 
returned to their divisions and their strifes. His memory 
continued to plead, and not unavailingly, for love of country 
and of countrymen. 

^j^^ The envoys to France reached their destination 

French in the beginning of the following year, (1800.) 
They found Napoleon Bonaparte first consul. With 
his government, after some difficulty, they concluded a con- 
vention, providing in part for mutual redress, but leaving 
many of the questions between the two nations for future 
settlement, (October.) When brought before the Senate 
of the United States, the convention was modified by can- 
celling the provision for additional negotiations. This was 
assented to in France, on condition that the claims for 
indemnities on either side should be abandoned. The 
effect was soon seen in claims for French spoliations pre- 
sented to the government of the United States. But the 
treaty sufficed to restore peace. 

Difficui- France was not the only foreign power with 
ties with which there had been difficulties. Spain, aggrieved, 
^''^^"* as she professed herself to be, by the same British 
treaty that had offended France, regarded the United States 
not only as an unimportant but as an untrustworthy ally. 
The former troubles in connection with the Florida terri- 
tory continued, especially upon the subject of a boundary 
between it and the United States. New troubles, too, 
arose. Vague projects to get possession of the Mississippi 
valley, by dint of intrigue amongst the western settlers, 
were ascribed, and not without reason, to the Spaniards. 
Thus, on both sides there were suspicions, on both con- 
tentions. 

The country at which Spain appeared to be aiming was 
rapidly organized by the United States. The Mississippi 



FOREIGN aggressions; oo7 

..... . Territory was formed, includin!:^ at first the lower 

Mississippi J . ' ^ 

Territory: part of tlic present Alabama and Mississippi, 
under"^de- (1798.) Tliis Organization excited a debate con- 
))iite. cerning slavery, which, as the organizing act pro- 
vided, was not to be prohibited in the territory. Here was 
no such plea as had ex\^ted in the case of the Territory 
South of the Ohio. No cession from a state, no conditions 
laid any restraint upon Congress. Yet but twelve votes 
were given in favor of an amendment proposed by George 
Thacher, of Massachusetts, prohibiting the introduction of 
slavery into the territory. The most that Congress would 
agree to, was to forbid the importation of slaves from 
abroad ; a concession, inasmuch as the slave trade, it will 
be remembered, was still allowed by the Constitution. So, 
for the second time, and this time without its being recpiired 
by terms with any state,* the decision of the national gov- 
ernment was given in favor of slavery. Let it be borne in 
mind, when we come to the controversies of later years. 

But Cono-ress took the other side, likewise. The 

Territory " . 

of iiidiiuia: westcm portion of the North-west Territory soon 
.siiivery j^geded to bo set off as the Territory of Indiana, 

ngiiiu. *' 

embracing the present Indiana, Illinois, and IMichi- 
gan, (1800.) There slavery was already prohibited. But 
this went against the interests of the inhabitants, as they 
thought, and they petitioned Congress, within three and 
again within seven years after the organization of the terri- 
tory, to be allowed to introduce slaves amongst them. Once 
a committee of Congress reported adversely ; but twice a 
report was made in favor of the petition. Reports and 

* The part of the territory at this time organized was claimed by the 
United States as a portion of the old Florida domain. Georgia likewise 
claimed it as hers ; and when she surrendered what was allowed to be 
hers, that is, the upper part of the present Alabama and Mississippi, she 
made it a condition that slavery should not be prohibited, (1802.) 

29 



338 TAIIT IV. 1797-1850. 

petitions, however, were alike fruitless. Congress would 
not authorize slavery where it had been prohibited. 
War with Jeff(irson's administration opened with fresh ag- 
Tiipoii. gressions from abroad. The Bey of Tripoli — a 
treaty with whom had been purchased under Washington's 
administration — now declared .war, undoubtedly for the 
purpose of exacting larger tribute, (1801.) The war con- 
tinued for four years, with many gallant actions on the part 
of the American navy, but witliout any important results. 
Peace was made, with an exchange of prisoners, and, as the 
American prisoners were more numerous, with a ransom to 
the Tripolitan government, (1805.) 

Much nearer home were the continued difficulties 

Acquisi- 

1 ion of with Spain. The Spanish transfer to France of 
Louisiana — the vast and undefined region on the 
west of the Mississippi — aggravated the inflamed relations 
between Spain and the United States, (1800.) It was 
while the province was still held by the Spanish authorities, 
that the Americans were excluded from New Orleans as a 
depot for the commerce of their western country, (1802.) 
Apprehensions were felt that the west itself was again in 
danger, and not merely from the designs of Spain, but still 
more from those of France. A proposal for seizing New 
Orleans was brought up in the United States Senate ; but 
it was determined to intrust the matter to the executive. 
The plan was to purchase that portion of Louisiana which 
included New Orleans, together, perhaps, with a jiart or the 
whole of the Floridas, then supposed to be included in the 
Spanish cession. But the envoys to France — Robert R. 
Livingston and James Monroe — finding the French gov- 
ernment disposed to part with the whole of their recent 
acquisition, decided to take it all for fifteen millions of dol- 
lars, ()n(^ quarter of the sum to be paid to American suffer- 
ers by French spoliations, (April 30, 1803.) 



FOREIGN AGGRESSIONS. o39 

Spain protested against the transaction immcfli- 
abroa/^ atclj, and subsequently took up arms to maintain 
and at j^gj, boundaries, tlu'eatened, as she considered, by 
the Americans both on the side of Florida and on 
that of Mexico. The United States would have ended the 
disputes about Florida by purchasing that province ; but 
Spain refused to part with it, and the two nations continued 
on uncertain terms for many years. Far more alarming 
were the controversies excited by the acquisition of Louisi- 
ana within the United States themselves. The republican 
chief magistrate, with his theories of a hmited general gov- 
ernment, had made use of a power far beyond any claimed 
by the federalists for his predecessors. JeiTei-son himself 
allowed it to be "an act beyond the Constitution," and 
hinted at " an act of indemnity," that is, a constitutional 
amendment to authorize his proceedings. The Senate 
la'tified the purchase, (October 20.) But loud and angry 
was the clamor of the opposition, although the o})position, 
had they been true to their professions, should have been 
the lirst to applaud a measure so much after their own sys- 
tem. The party bitterness of the time is almost incredible. 
Not content with the old divisions, men entered into new 
ones ; the dominant party, the repul)lican, being divided 
and subdivided. Nor were partisans satisfied with speak- 
ing, writing, or acting against one another ; they shot down 
their antagonists in duels and murderous affrays. It was 
amidst these troubles abroad and at home, while Spain was 
excited, and the parties of the United States inflamed, that 
the acquisition of Louisiana was completed. 

The possession of the Mississippi to its mouth, 
involved" ^^^^ ^^^^ consequent security of the western terri- 
in the ac- tory, wcrc the principal points insisted upon by 

quisition. ^ ... ^._. 

those who supported the acquisition. With those 
\Yho opposed it, the enlargement of territory and the viola- 



340 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

tion of the Constitution were the great arguments. Neither 
party laid much if any stress upon the point which we of 
the present day can see to have been the chief one involved 
in the whole transaction. This was the extension of sla- 
very, not, as in the cases previously noticed, by the organi- 
zation of the national territory, but by the annexation of a 
foreign region already containing upwards of fifty thousjind 
slaves, and open, of course, to fifty times as many in the 
progress of years. Of what depended upon this Ave shall 
see more hereafter. 

The immense region thus acquired was divided 
tion of into two portions, (1804.) The southern, in which 
Louisiana r^^ ^Jjq settlements of any importance were included, 

ten-ituries. ^ 

was called the- Territory of Orleans. It compre- 
liended the present State of Louisiana, but with very indefi- 
nite boundaries on the west. North of this lay the District 
of Louisiana, embracing the present Arkansas and Mis- 
souri, with as much more as could be brought within its 
elastic limits on the north and west, its principal settlement 
being St. Louis. This district was made a part of the same 
jurisdiction with the Indiana Territory, from which, how- 
ever, it was soon detached, (1805.) At the same time, tlie 
provisions for the Territory of Orleans, complained of by 
some of the inhabitants, were rendered more liberal. The 
terms of the treaty concluding the purchase had been these : 
" The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorpo- 
rated in the Union of the United States, and admitted as 
soon as possible, according to the principles of the federal 
Constitution, to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, 
and immunities of citizens of the United States ; and in the 
mean time shall be maintained and protected in the free 
enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the religion which 
they profess." Treaties of this kind were not every- day 
occurrences with Napoleon. 



FOREIGN AGGRESSIONS. 341 

Other ter- ^^^^ "^^ State of Oliio was already admitted to 
ritoriai the Union, (November 29, 1802.) New territo- 
oi^lSza- ries — Michigan (1805) and Illinois (1809) — 
tions. were subsequently formed from out of the Indiana 
Territory. The signs of expansion were written every 
where, but nowhere so strikingly as along the western 
plains. 

Burr's There they were such as to kindle projects of a 

projects, j^g^ empire. Aaron Burr, vice president during 
Jefferson's first term, but displaced in the second term by 
George CHnton, (1805,) — branded, too, with the recent 
murder of Alexander Hamilton in a duel, — was generally 
avoided amongst his old associates. Turning his face west- 
ward, he there drew into his net various men, some of posi- 
tion and some of obscurity, with whose aid he seems to have 
intended making himself master of the Mississippi valley, or 
of Mexico, one or both, (1806.) Whatever his schemes 
were, they miscarried. A handful only of followers were 
gathered round him on the banks of the Mississippi, a 
hundred miles or more above New Orleans, when he sur- 
rendered himself to the government of the Mississi|)pi Ter- 
ritory, (January, 1807.) Some months afterwards he was 
brought to trial for high treason before Chief Justice Mar- 
shall, of the Supreme Court, with whom sat the district 
judge for Virginia; the reason for trying Burr in that state 
being the fact that one of the places where he was charged 
with having organized a military expedition was within 
the Virginian limits. The trial, like every thing else in 
those days, was made a party question ; the administration 
and its supporters going strongly against Burr, while its 
opponents were disposed to take his part. He was acquit- 
ted for want of proof; and for the same reason he was 
again acquitted when tried for undertaking to invade the 
Spanish territories, 

29^* 



342 PART IV. 1797-1850 

Frowning high above all these domestic events 
ties with wcrc the aggressions from abroad. If they sank in 
Great one direction, they seemed sure to rise the more 

Britain. • i • i t 

threatenmgiy in another. It was now the turn of 
Great Britain. That state, however, had never ceased to 
make such use or abuse of its strength as it pleased — not 
even after the treaty under Washington's administration ; 
the treaty, as formerly mentioned, having left many matters 
of controversy undecided. The system of impressment, for 
instance, though protested against by the United States, 
had never been renounced by Great Britain. On the con- 
trary, it had been extended even to the American navy, of 
which the vessels were once and again plundered of their 
seamen by British men-of-war. Another subject on which 
Great Britain set herself against the claims of the United 
States, was the neutral trade, of which the latter nation en- 
grossed a large and constantly increasing share during the 
European wars. After various attempts to discourage 
American commerce with her enemies. Great Britain un- 
dertook to put it down by condemning vessels of the United 
States on the ground that their cargoes were not neutral 
but belligerent property ; in other words, that the Ameri- 
cans transported goods which were not their own, but those 
of nations at war with Great Britain. It must be allowed 
that the American shippers played a close game, importing 
merchandise only to get a neutral name for it, and then ex- 
porting it to the country to which it could not be shipped 
directly from its place of origin. But the sharj^er tlie prac- 
tice, the more of a favorite it seemed to be. A cry went 
up from all the commercial towns of the United States, ap- 
pealing to the government for protection, (1805.) 
,,. . Government could do but little. It passed a law 

JMission. ... 

prohibiting the importation of certain articles from 
Great Britain ; the prohibition, however, not to take imme- 



FOREIGN AGGRESSIONS. 343 

diate effect. This, it was thought, would so far intimidate 
the British authorities as to produce a suspension of their 
high-handed proceedings. At the same time, a mission, 
consisting of James Monroe and William Pinkney, was 
sent to London, to negotiate a new treaty, in wliich the dis- 
puted points should be included, (April, 1806.) " I hope," 
wrote Jefferson to Monroe, " that the ministry will come to 
just arrangements. No two countries upon earth have so 
many points of common interest and friendship ; and their 
rulers must be bunglers indeed, if with such dispositions 
they break them asunder." But the mission proved a total 
failure. In the first place, the envoys could* obtain no sat- 
isfaction on the subject of impressment, and next to none on 
that of the neutral trade. In the next place, tlie treaty 
which they signed, notwithstanding these omissions, was at 
once rejected by President Jefferson, without even a refer- 
ence to the Senate, (March, 1807.) The tumult of party 
that ensued was immense. The president was charged with 
sacrificing the best interests of the country, as well as with 
violating the plainest provisions of the Constitution. Was 
it he alone who held the treaty-making power, — he, too, 
the republican, who had insisted upon restraining the powers 
of the executive ? But looking back upon the action of Jef- 
ferson, we see little in it to have provoked such outcries. 
He sent envoys to form a new treaty ; they had merely 
reformed an old one. It might be rash to sacrifice the ad- 
vantages which they had gained ; but might it not be igno- 
minious to surrender the claims which they had passed by ? 
. ^ . „ If the nation needed to be convinced of the neces- 

Affixir of 

the chesa- sity of somc definite ^understanding with Great Brit- 
^'^^ ^' ain on the subjects omitted in the rejected treaty, it 
soon had an opportunity. The American frigate Chesa- 
peake, sailing from Hampton Roads, was hailed off the 
capes of Chesapeake Bay by the British frigate Leopard, 



344 PART IV. 1797-18.50. 

the captain of wliich demanded to search the Chesapeake 
for deserters from the service of ■ Great Britain. Captain 
Barron, the commander of the Chesapeake, refused ; 
whereupon the Leopard opened fire. As Barron and liis 
crew were totally unprepared for action, they fired but a 
single gun, to save their honor, then, having lost several 
men, struck their flag. The British commander took those 
of whom he was in search, three of the four being Ameri- 
cans, and left the Chesapeake to make her way Ijack 
dishonored, and the nation to which she belonged dishon- 
ored likewise, (June 22, 1807.) The president issued a 
proclamation, ordering British men-of-war from the waters 
of the United States. Instructions were sent to the envoys 
at London, directing them, not merely to seek reparation 
for the wrong that had been done, but to obtain the renun- 
ciation of the pretensions to a right of search and of im- 
pressment, from which the wrong had sprung. Tlie British 
government recognized their responsibility, by sending a 
special minister to settle the difficulty at AYashington. It 
was four years, however, before the desired reparation was 
procured, (1811.) The desired renunciation was never 
made. One can scarcely credit his eyes, when he reads 
that the affair of the Chesapeake was made a party point. 
But so it was. The friends of Great Britain, the capitalists 
and commercial classes, generally, murmured at the course 
of their government, as too decided, too French, they some- 
times called it ; as if the slightest resistance to Great Britain 
were subordination to France. 

Aspect of The aspect of the two nations was very much 
^'''^''it changed of late years. Bonaparte, the consul of 
and the French republic, had become Napoleon, the 

France, emperor of the French empire. Regarded by his 
enemies as^ monster steeped in despotism and in blood, he 
excited abhorrence, not only for himself, but for his nation, 



FOREIGN AGGRESSIONS. 345 

amongst a large portion of tlie Americans. On the other 
hand, Great Britain, formerly scouted at as the opponent 
of liberty, was now generally considered its champion in 
Europe. There was but a fjiint comprehension of the prin- 
ciples involved in the struggle between Great Britain and 
France, of the real attitude taken by the former in warring 
against the chosen sovereign of the latter, or of the remorse- 
less ambition by which the one government was quite aa 
much actuated as the other. But tliere was still a very 
considerable number in America to sympathize with France, 
if with either of the contending powers. To these men, 
the aggressions of Great Britain were intolerable ; while to 
the supporters of the British, the French aggressions were 
far the more unendurable. 

British Both parties had their fill. Before the attack 

'^"'^ on the Chesapeake, the hsts had been opened 

French ^ '■ 

aggres- between France and England, to see, not merely 
sions. j^^^^ much harm they could do to each other, but 
how much they could inflict upon all allied or connected 
with each other. Connected with both were the Americans, 
who were now assailed by both. Great Britain led off by 
declaring the French ports, from Brest to the Elbe, closed 
to American as to all other shipping, (May 16, 1806.) 
France retorted by the Berlin decree, so called because 
issued from Prussia, prohibiting any commerce with Great 
Britain, (November 21.) That power immediately forbade 
the coasting trade between one port and another in the 
possession of her enemies, (January 7, 1807.) Not satis- 
fied with this, she went on to forbid all trade whatsoever 
with France and her allies, except on payment of a tribute 
to Great Britain, each vessel to pay in proportion to its 
cargo, (November 11.) Then followed the Milan decree 
of Napoleon, prohibiting all trade whatsoever with Great 
Britain, and declaring such vessels as paid the recently 



246 FART IV. 1797-1S50. 

domanded tribute to be lawful jorizes to the French marine, 
(December 17.) Such was the series of acts thundering 
like broadsides against the interests of America. It trans- 
formed commerce from a peaceful pursuit into a warlike 
one — full of peril, of loss, of strife. It did more. It 
wounded the national honor, by attempting to prostrate the 
United States at the mercy of the European powers. 
The afi- There was but one of two courses for the United 
nr.ni.tra- States to take — peace or preparation for war. 
ii,-:unst War itself was impossible in the unprovided state 
^*'''^'' of the country ; but to assume a defensive, and if 
need were, to get ready for an offensive position, was per- 
fectly practicable. Jefferson thought it enough to order an 
additional number of gunboats — very different from the 
gunboats of our time, and yet considered by the administra- 
tion and its supporters to constitute a navy by themselves. 
The president did not favor any thing that looked like war. 
He had come into office with denunciations of the proceed- 
ings of the Adams administration against France ; nor 
did the circumstances in which the nation was now situated 
v'^mooth the way to hostilities with any foreign power. " In 
the present maniac state of Europe," he wrote a little later, 
" I should not estimate the point of honor by the ordinary 
scale. I believe we shall, on the contrary, have credit with 
tlie world for having made the avoidance of being engaged 
in the present unexampled war our first object. War, how- 
<'ver, may become a less losing business than unresisted 
depredation." There remained the alternative of peace. 

To preserve it, the president hit upon the most 
self-denying of plans. The aggressions of the Euro- 
])(';ui powers were directed against the commerce of Amer- 
ica, the rights of owners and of crews. That these might 
be secured, the president recommended, and Congress 
r.Jo[)ted, an embargo upon all United States vessels, and 



FOllEIGN AGGRESSIONS. 347 

upon all foreign vessels* witli cargoes shipped after the 
passage of the act in United States ports, (December 22, 
1807.) * In other words, as commerce led to injuries from 
foreign nations, commerce was to be abandoned. There 
was also the idea that the foreign nations themselves would 
suffer from the loae of American supplies and American 
prizes. It was a singular way, one must allow, of preserv- 
ing peace, to adopt a measure at once provoking to the 
stranger, and destructive to the citizen. The latter eluded 
it, and it was again and again enforced by severe and even 
arbitrary statutes. Tlie former laughed it to scorn. France, 
on whose side the violent federalists declared the embargo 
to be, answered by a decree of Napoleon's from Bayonne, 
ordering the confiscation of all American vessels in French 
ports, (April 17, 1808.) Great Britain soon after made 
her response, by an order proliibiting the exi)ortation of 
American produce, whether paying tribute, or not, to the 
European continent, (December 21.) So ineffective abroad, 
so productive of discontent at home, even amongst the sup- 
porters of the administration, did the embargo prove, that 
it was repealed, (March, 1809.) 

Succeed- Thus neither preserving peace nor preparing 
in- acts. ^qj. ^yr^^^ Jeffcrsou gavo up the conduct of affairs to 
his successor, Madison, who kept on the same course. In 
place of the embargo were non-intercourse or non-importa- 
tion acts in relation to Great Britain and France, as restric- 
tive as the embargo, so for as the designated nations were 
concerned, but leaving free the trade with other countries. 
These successors of the embargo, however, were nowise 
more effectual than that had been. They were reviled and 
violated in America ; they were contemned in Europe. 

* The date shows that the embargo was kiid before the news of the 
last violent decrees of France and Great Britain. 



348 * PART IV. 1797-lSoa. 

The administration amused itself with suspending the 
restrictions, now in favor of Great Britain, (1809,) and 
now in favor of France, (1810.) hoping to induce those 
powers to reciprocate the compliment by a suspension of 
their own aggressive orders. There was a sIioav of doing 
so. Napoleon had recently issued a dedtee from Rambouil- 
let, ordering the sale of more than a hundred American 
vessels as condemned prizes, (March 23, 1810.) But on 
the news from America, willing to involve the young nation 
in hostilities with Great Britain, he intimated his readiness 
to retract the decrees of which the United States com- 
plained. But he would not do so, he made known, except 
on one of two conditions ; either the British orders must be 
recalled, or else, in case of their not being recalled, the 
claims of the United States must be enforced against them. 
To all this. Great Britain replied, that when the French 
decrees were actually, and not conditionally, revoked, her 
orders should be revoked likewise. It was but a mockery 
on both sides ; and America, mortified, but not yet enlight- 
ened, returned to her proliibitions. They were scoffed at 
by her own people. 

Oppo- It is not so difficult to describe as to conceive the 

sition. ]^^^g jjj-j(j f^Yy, on the part of the opposition, against 
the embargo and the subsequent acts. Whatever discon- 
tent, whatever nullification had been expressed by the 
republicans against the war measures of Adams, was 
rivalled, if not outrivalled by the federalists against the 
so-called peace measures of Jefferson and Madison. Town 
meetings, state legislatures, even the courts in some places, 
declared against the constitutionality and the validity of 
the embargo statutes. The federalists of Massachusetts 
were charged with the design of dissolving the Union. It 
was not their intention, but their language had warranted 
its being imputed to tliem. " Choose, then, fellow-citizenB," 



FOREIGN AGGRESSIONS. 319 

their legislature exclaimed, " between the condition of a 
free state, possessing its equal weight and influence in the 
general government, or that of a colony, free in name, but 
in fact enslaved by sister states." 
^ ,. While affairs, domestic find foreif^rn, were thus 

Indian ' o ' 

Jiostiii- agitated, there came a fresh outbreak of Indian 
hostilities. It was under Jefferson that the plan of 
removing the Indians to the west was begun, (1804.) Of 
this the main object was to secure the continuance of peace, 
it being at that time comparatively unimportant to extend 
the national domains. But it was this very plan, though as 
yet imperfectly developed, that led, at least in part, to 
renewed warfare. Two chiefs of the Shawanoes, Tecum- 
seh and his twin brother, styled the Prophet, for some time 
settled on the Tippecanoe River, in the Indiana Territory, 
had set themselves at the head of a sort of confederacy 
amongst the western races. But for the profane pretensions 
of the Prophet, and the unscrupulous intrigues of Tecum- 
seh, the principles of the league would have deserved 
success. One great point was the title of the Indians, as 
a whole, to the lands of which the whites were getting 
possession, by bargains with individuals or with individual 
tribes. Another was the prohibition of the ardent spirits 
with wdiich the traders were destroying the Indians, body 
and soul. But to support these principles, the confederates, 
or their leaders, relied upon treachery and terror, super- 
stition and blasphemy. The governor of Indiana Terri- 
tory, Wilham H. Harrison, marched against them with a 
force of a few hundred. Tecumseh was absent at the time, 
but his brother and his confederates were overtaken. To 
the last, they professed peace, then fell upon the camp of 
the Americans. They were expected, however, and were 
routed, (November 7, 1811.) 

The steel was glistening upon the southern frontier. An 
30 



350 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

._,. insurrection against the Spanish authority in West 
ana and Florida had been followed by a presidential procla- 
mation declaring the territory on the east bank of the 
Mississippi a portion of Louisiana, (October, 1810.) Soon 
after, (January, 1811,) Congress authorized the acquisition 
of the entire province of Florida, provided either that Spain 
consented to it, or that any other power attempted to take 
possession. Without any actual collision, the Spanish gar- 
risons and the American troops were too near one another 
to favor peace. It did not lessen the excitement in that 
quarter, when Louisiana, with a large portion of Florida, 
according to the Spanish claim, was admitted a state, (April 
8, 1812.) The District of Louisiana in the north then 
took the name of Missouri. Another siice of Florida was 
annexed to the Mississippi Territory, while an insurrection 
within the remaining Florida limits was stimulated by an 
American functionary ; a demonstration being made against 
St. Augustine. This was promptly disavowed by the gov- 
ernment at Washington ; but the troops from the states 
were not withdraw^n until the following year, nor then 
entirely. Mobile being retained by way of Compensation 
for what was surrendered, (1813.) 

Li both the Florida and the Lidian difficulties, 

Warlike ^ . . , -,-,.. i i • . 

piepara- British agcncy ivas suspected and inveighed against 
tinns ^y ^Y^Q excited Americans. The an£:^ry feelings 
Great betwccu the two nations had received a further 
Britain, g^jj-^^^i^g f^.^j^ ^j^ encouutcr of the American frigate 
President with the British sloop of war Little Belt, in 
which the latter suffered severely ; the only reason alleged 
by eitlier of the vessels for firing being an informality in 
liuiling, (May, 1811.) It was plain that war was becoming 
popular in the United States. As for that, it had always 
been so ; when Washington opposed it, he was abused ; 
when Adams favored it, he was extolled ; Avlien Jefferson 



FOREIGN AGGRESSIONS. 351 

avoided it, he risked even liis immense influence over the 
nation. Congress now took up the question, and voted one 
measure after another, prepai'atory to hostiUties with Great 
Britain, (December — March, 1812.) The president hesi- 
tated. He wa;.. ^"0 war leader by nature or by principle ; 
the only tendency in that direction came to him from party 
motives. His party, or the more active portion of it, was 
all for arms ; when he doubted, they urged ; when he 
inclined to draw back, they drove him forward. It being 
the time when the congressional caucus was about to nom- 
inate for the presidency, Madison received the intimation 
hat if he was a candidate for reelection, he must come out 
for war. Wliether it was to force or to his own free will 
that he yielded, he did yield, and sent a message to Con- 
gress, recommending an embargo of sixty days. Congress 
received it, according to its intention, as a preliminary to 
war, and voted it, though far from unanimously, for ninety 
days, (April 4, 1812.) 

Tormina- ^^ ^^^^ the natural termination of the preceding 
tion of strifes, continued now for twenty years. What 

preced- . '' "^ 

ing Washington had been able to suppress, because he 
strifes, gtood abovc mere party motives, that neither Adams, 
nor Jeffers9n, nor Madison had been able to meet. They 
yielded, more or less, but all in some degree, to party what 
they should have maintained for the nation. From the 
very beginning, when Adams held office, the result was war 
with France ; the result of the controversies under Jeffer- 
son" and under Madison was war with Great Britain. Nor 
let it be set down as an exaggeration, that war should be 
thus attributed to party movements at home, rather than to 
the national aggressions from abroad. The latter, it is true, 
were the material upon which parties and administrations 
acted ; but what would have become of tiie material, had 



352 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

parties and administrations been at peace ? Would any- 
foreign power have so assailed the nation, had it been 
united? Or would it, if assailed, have borne its injuries 
so long, that there remained no alternative but arms ? It 
is an impressive lesson of the effects of disunion. 






CHAPTER II. 

War with Great Britain. 

Deciara- A MESSAGE from tlic president callccl the atten- 
*^°"- tion of Congress to the relations with Great Britain 
and with France. The former power, violating all individ- 
ual rights by its impressments, and all national ones by its 
blockades, its orders against neutrals, and its captures, was 
virtually at war with the United States. Nor could France 
be said to be at peace, while she continued her seizures of 
American vessels, notwithstanding the repeal of the decrees 
against neutral commerce. With her, however, there was 
some hope of successful negotiation ; in fact, conferences 
were now going on at Paris. But ^vith Great Britain, the 
message implied little prospect of coming to terms. Con- 
gress took up the subject. Motions to include France in 
the course proposed with respect to Great Britain were 
made, but lost. Against Great Britain, war was voted by 
Congress, (June 18,) and declared by the president, (June 
19, 1812.) 

The United States went to war for two great 

Cause 

of the principles ; one, the rights of neutrals, the other, 
states^ the rights of seamen ; both involving the honor and 
the- independence of the nation. To admit the 
necessity of the principles, however, is not to admit the 
necessity of the war as the means of sustaining them. 
France having again — and this time unconditionally — 
repealed her aggressive decrees, Great Britain withdrew 
30 * (353) 



o54 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

lier arbitrary orders in council just as the war was declared, 
(June 23.) One of the chief grounds for hostilities, there- 
fore, fell through. The other remained, but only, it was 
insisted by Great Britain, until the United States would 
take some measures to prevent British seamen from enlist- 
ing in the American service, which being done, there would 
be no need of search or of imjiressment by the navy of 
Great Britain. This very thing was begun upon, though 
not until several months after the outbreak of war.* At 
the beginning, the American minister at London was in- 
structed to propose an armistice, on condition that the 
claims of impressment and of neutral subjection were 
waived. The British government rejected the proposal, 
principally on the score of impressment, which they would 
not yield or even suspend during negotiation. For the 
reason that they would not do so, their proposals of an 
armistice, through their commanders in America, were 
rejected by the United States, (June — October.) We 
must fight, cried the war party, if it is only for our seamen ; 
six thousand of them are victims to these atrocious impress- 
ments. The British government had admitted, tlie year 
before, that they liad sixteen hundred Americans in their 
service. But your six thousand, retorted the advocates of 
peace, are not all your own ; there are foreigners, British 
subjects, amongst them ; and will you fight for these ? We 
will, was the reply — and here the sympathy of every 
generous heart must be theirs, so far as they were sincere 
— the stranger who comes to dwell or to toil amongst us is 
as much our own as if he were born in America. 
A party ^jut the cause of the United States cannot be 
cause. gj^i(] j.(j lisiYQ been so broad or so noble as the 



* But the prohibition of foreign enlistments was made to depend upon 
certain conditions, which were not fulfilled. 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 355 

protection of those who had sought an asylum in the land. 
It was not even the cause of the nation itself, to judge by 
the way in which it was maintained. It was what might 
Iiave been expected from the movements leading to it — 
the cause of a party, nominally headed by Madison, the pres- 
ident, by James Monroe, the secretary of state, by Albert 
Gallatin, (the same who appeared in the Pennsylvania insur- 
rection of Washington's time,) the secretary of the treas-. 
ury, and by others, officers or supporters of the administra- 
t^n, both in and out of Congress ; but the real leaders of 
the war party were younger men, some risen to distinction, 
like Henry Clay, speaker of the House of Representatives, 
and John C. Calhoun, member of the same body, but many 
more aspiring to place in the council or m the camp, to 
place any where, so that there was an opening to the fame 
or to the emolument for which they variously yearned. 
As 8uch The party support which the war received ex- 
opposed. plains the party opposition which it encountered. 
The signal, given by a protest from the federalist members 
of Congress, was caught up and repeated in public meetings 
and at private hearth-stones. Even the pulpit threw open 
its doors to political harangues, and those not of the mildest . 
sort. " The alternative then is," exclaimed a clergyman at 
Boston, " that if you do not wish to become the slaves of 
those who own slaves, and who are themselves the slaves of 
French slaves, you must either, in the language of the day, 
cut the connection, or so far alter the national Constitution 
as to secure yourselves a due share in the government. 
The Union has long since been virtually dissolved, and it is 
full time that this portion of the United States sliould take 
care of itself" This single extract must stand here for a 
thousand others that might be cited. Coming from the 
source that it did, it is a striking illustration of the section- 
ality, nay, the personal vindictiveness, with which the oppo- 



35 G PART IV. 1797-1850. 

sition was animated. Strongest in New England, where 
alone the federalist party still retained its power, the hos- 
tility to the war sj^read through all parts of the country, 
gathering many of otherwise conflicting views around the 
banner that had so long been traiUng in the dust. If we 
cannot sympathize with the party thus reviving, we need 
not join in the tumult raised against it on the score of 
treachery or dishonor. The federalists opposed the war, 
not because they were anti-national, but because they 
thought it anti-national. ^ 

Wiii- at The war began at home. The office of a federal- 

iioine. jg^ paper, the Federal Republican, conducted by 
Alexander Hanson, at Baltimore, was sacked by a mob, 
who then went on to attack dwellings, pillage vessels, and, 
finally, to fire the house of an individual suspected of par- 
tialities for 'Great Britain, (June 22, 23.) A month later, 
Hanson opened another office, and prepared to defend it, 
with the assistance of his friends, against the assault which 
he felt sure his boldness would provoke. The mob came, 
and, after a night of horror, forced the party in the office to 
yield themselves prisoners on a charge of murder. The 
next night the prison was assailed ; Hanson and his friends, 
excepting some who escaped, being beaten and tortured 
with indescribable fury. General Henry Lee, a revolu- 
tionary hero, who had taken the lead in the measures of 
defence, was injured for life. Another soldier of the revo- 
lution. General Lingan, was actually slain ; a fate which 
would have been shared by many, but for the exhaustion 
of the destroyers, (July 26, 27.) All this was done with 
nothing more than the show of interference on the part of 
the authorities. Even at the subsequent trial of the ring- 
leaders in the mob, they were acquitted. Hanson kept up 
his paper only by removing to Georgetown. 

Such being the passions, such the divisions internally, the 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 357 

Breans for nation needed more than the usual panoply to pro- 
thewar. ^^p^ itsclf externally. But it had less. The col- 
onies of 1775 did not go to war more unprepared than the 
United States of 1812. There was no army to speak of. 
Generals abounded, it is true, Henry Dearborn, late secre- 
tary of war, being at the head of the list ; but troops were . 
few and far between, some thousands of regulars and of 
volunteers constituting the entire force. As to the militia, 
there were grave differences to prevent its efficient employ- 
ment. In the first place, there was a general distrust of 
such bodies of troops. In the next place, there were local 
controversies, between certain of the state authorities and 
the general government, as to the power of the latter to call 
out the militia in the existing state of things.* If the army 
was inconsiderable, the navy was hardly perceptible, em- 
bracing only eight or ten frigates, as many more smaller 
vessels, and a flotilla of comparatively useless gunboats. 
The national finances were in a correspondingly low con- 
dition. The revenue, affected by the interruptions to com- 
merce during the preceding years, needed all the stimulants 
wdiich it could obtain, even in time of peace. It was wholly 
inadequate to the exigencies of Avar. Accordingly, resort 
was had to loans, then to direct taxes and licenses, (1813.) 
But tlie ways and means fell far short of the demands upon 
them. In fine, whether we take a financial or a military 
point of view, we find the country equally unfitted for hos- 
tilities. It might rely, indeed, upon its own inherent ener- 
gies, the energies of six millions of freemen ; f but even 
these were distracted, and to a great degree paralyzed. 

* The Constitution authorizing Congress " to provide for calling forth 
the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and 
repel invasions." 

t The census of 1810 gave a total of 7,239,814, of which 1,191,364 were 
slaves. 



358 . PART IV. 1797-1850.- 

Position Fortunate, therefore, was it that Great Britain 
of Great was occupied, it may be said absorbed, in Europe. 
Her mighty struggle with Napoleon w^as at its 
height when the United States declared war. To British 
ears the declaration sounded much the same as the wail of a 
child amidst the contentions of men. Very little heed was 
paid to it, the retraction of the orders in council being con- 
sidered as hkely to end it altogether. But to the astonish- 
ment of the British government the Americans persisted. 
Let them wait, was the tone, until Bonaparte is crushed, 
and they shall have their turn. 

The charge fell again and again upon the United 

Of France. ^^ ,...„/ , , 

btates admmistration, Irom its opponents, that it 
Avas entering into war as the ally, or rather as the minion, 
of France. The charge was unfounded. Even had it been 
intended by the war party to go to the aid of Napoleon, 
they would have been stopped, partly by his utter indiffer- 
ence at the time, and partly by his declining fortunes in the 
months that ensued. He and his nation had no mind to 
look beyond their own vicissitudes. 

The war Notwithstanding the almost entire want of means, 
Losses on the United States government determined to carry 
Avestcrn *^^® "^^^ ^^^o the cucmy's country. For this purpose, 
frontier. "William Hull, general and governor of Michigan 
Territory, crossed from Detroit to Sandwich, in Canada, Avith 
about two thousand men, (July 12.) In a httle more than a 
month, he had not only retreated, but surrendered, without 
a blow, to General Brock, the governor of Lower Canada, 
(August IG.) The British, already in possession of the 
northern part of Michigan, were soon masters of the entire 
territory. So far from being able to recover it, General 
Harrison, who made the attempt in the ensuing autumn 
and winter, found it all he could do to save Ohio from fall- 
ing with Michigan. A detachment of Kentuckians yielded 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 359 

to a superior force of British at Frenchtown, on the River 
Raisin, (January, 1813 ;) whereupon Harrison took post 
hy the Maumee, at Fort Meigs, holding cmt there against 
the British and their Indian aUies, (April, May.) The 
same fort was again assailed and again defended, General 
Clay being at that time in command, (July.) Fort Steven- 
son, on the Sandusky, was then attacked, but defended with 
great spirit and success by a small garrison under Major 
Croghan, (August.) Yet Ohio was still in danger. 
Porr 'a ^^ ^^^^ rcscucd by different operations from those 
victory on as yct described. Captain Chauncey, after gather- 
^"'ing a little fleet on Lake Ontario, where he achieved 
some successes, appointed Lieutenant Oliver II. Perry to 
tlie command on Lake; Erie. Perry's first duty was to pro- 
vide a fleet ; his next, to lead it, when provided, against the 
British vessels under Captain Barclay. At length the 
squadrons met off Sandusky, the British to suffer total de- 
feat, the Americans to win complete victory, (September 
10, 1813.) It was in more than oflicial language that the 
president communicated this achievement to Congress. 
'^ The conduct of Captain Perry," he said, " adroit as it was 
daring, and which was so well seconded by his comrades, 
justly entitles them to the admiration and gratitude of their 
country, and will fill an early page in its naval annals with 
a victory never surpassed in lustre, however much it may 
have been in magnitude." It was a victory on a small 
scale. Yet its importance immediately appeared. Taking 
on board a body of troops from Ohio and Kentucky, under 
Harrison, Perry transported them to the neighborhood of 
Sandwich, on the Canada shore, the same spot against 
which Hull had marched more than a twelvemonth before. 
The British having retired, Harrison crossed to Detroit. 
Recrossing, he advanced in pursuit of the much less numer- 
ous enemy, whose rear and whose main body were routed 



3 GO PART IV. 1797-1850. 

on two successive days, ^October 4, 5.) The latter action, 
on the bank of the Thames, was decisive ; the British Gen- 
eral Proctor making his escape with but a small portion 
of his troops, while his Indian ally, Tecumseh, was slain. 
Ohio was thus saved, and Michigan recovered ; though not 
entirely, the British still- holding the northern extremity of 
the territory. 

All along the frontier between New York and 
on New^"^^ Canada, there had been from the first some scat- 
York tered forces, both American and British. The 
former pretended to act on the offensive, but amidst 
continual failures. Chief of these movements without inter- 
est and without result, was an attack against Queenstown, 
on the Canada shore of the Niagara River. Advanced 
parties gained possession of a battery on the bank, but there 
they were checked, and at length obliged to surrender, for 
want of support from their comrades on the American side. 
General Van Rensselaer was the American, General Brock 
the British commander; the latter falling in battle, the 
former resigning in disgust after the battle was over, (Octo- 
ber 13, 1812.) In the following spring. General Dearborn 
and the land troops, in conjunction with Chauncey and the 
fleet, took York, (now Toronto,) the capital of Upper Can- 
ada, burning the Parliament House, and then proceeding 
successfully against the forts on the Niagara River, (April, 
May, 1813.) At this point, however, affairs took an unfa- 
vorable turn. The British mustered strong, and, though 
repulsed from Sackett's Harbor by General Brown, at the 
head of some regular troops and volunteers, they obtained 
the command of the lake, making descents in various places, 
and reducing the American forces, both land and naval, to 
comparative inactivity, (June.) Months afterwards, the 
land forces, now under the lead of General Wilkinson, 
started on a long-pruposcd cxpcdilion against JNIontrcal ; 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITaIN. 361 

but encountering resistance on the way down the St. Law- 
rence, went straight into winter quarters within the New 
York frontier. A body of troops under General Hampton, 
moving in the same direction from Lake Champlain, met 
with a feint of opposition, rather than opposition itself, from 
the British ; it was sufficient, liowever, to induce a retreat, 
(November.) Both these armies far outnumbered the 
enemy, Wilkinson having seventy-five hundred, and Hamp- 
ton forty-five hundred men under them. On the Avestern 
border of New York, things went still worse. General 
Bl'Clure, left in charge of the Niagara frontier, was so 
weakened by the loss of men at the expiration of their 
terms of service, and at the same time so pressed by the 
enemy, as to abandon the Canada shore, leaving behind liini 
the ruins of Fort George aiid of the village of Newark. 
The destruction thus wreaked by orders of the government 
was avenged upon the New York borders. Parties of Brit- 
ish and Indians, crossing the frontier at different places, 
took Fort Niagara, at the mouth of the river, and swept 
the adjacent country with fire and sword as far as Buffalo, 
(December.) Ghitted with success, the invaders retired, 
save from Fort Niagara, which they held until the end of 
the Avar. In the following spring, (March, 1814,) General 
Wilkinson emerged from his retreat, and, with a portion of 
his troops, undertook to carry the approaches to Canada 
from the side of Lake Champlain. But on coming uj) with 
a stone mill held by British troops, he abruptly withdrew. 
A more helpless group than that of the Americans, wheth- 
er commanders, officers, or soldiers, on the New York 
frontier, cannot well be conceived. There were exceptions, 
of course, as in the fleets of Ontario, and especially of Erie ; 
but on shore there was almost unbroken imbeciHty. The 
secretary of war himself. General Armstrong, had been 
upon the ground ; he but confirmed the rule. 
31 



362 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

On Niagara As the War, thus pitiably prosecuted, entered 
frontier. .^^^^ .^^ ^j^j^.^| ^^^^^ (1814,) a Concentration of 

efforts, both American and British, took place upon the 
Niagara frontier. General Brown, the defender of Sack- 
ett's Harbor, obtaining the command, and with such 
supporters as General Scott and other gallant officers, 
resolved upon crossing to the Canada side. There, with 
an army of some thirty-five hundred men, he took Fort 
Erie, (July 2,) gained the battle of Chippewa, (July 5,) 
and drove the enemy, under General Riall, from the fron- 
tier, save from a single stronghold. Fort George. The 
British, hoAvever, on being reenforced, returned under Gen- 
erals Riall and Drummond, and met the Americans at 
Bridgewater — the most of an action that had as yet been 
fought during the war. It was within the roar of Niagara 
that the opposing lines crossed their swords and opened 
their batteries. Begun by Scott, in advance of the main 
body, which soon came up under Brown, the battle was 
continued until midnight, to the advantage of the American 
army, (July 25.) But they were unable to follow up or 
even to maintain their success, and fell back upon Fort 
Erie. Thither the British proceeded, and after a night 
assault, laid siege to the place, then under the command of 
General Gaines. As soon as Brown, who had withdrawn 
to recover from his wounds, resumed his command at the 
fort, he at once ordered a sortie, the result being the raising 
of the siege, (September 17.) He was soon after called 
away to defend Sackett's Harbor, the enemy having the 
up[)er hand on the lake. His successor in command on the 
Niagara frontier. General Izard, blew up Fort Erie, and 
abandoned the Canada shore, (November.) 

Meanwhile the American arms had distinguished them- 
selves on the side of Lake Chanrplain. Thither descended 
the Britisli General Prevost with twelve thousand soldiers, 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 363 

lately arrived from Europe, his object being to 
of Lake carrj the American M^orks at Plattsburg, and to 
Cham- diive the American vessels from the waters. He 

plain. 

was totally unsuccessful. Captain McDonough, 
after long exertions, had constructed a fleet, with which 
he now met and overwhelmed the British squadron. The 
land attack upon the few thousand regulars and militia 
under General Macomb was hardly begun before it was 
given over in consequence of the naval action, (September 
11.) No engagement in the war, before or after, was more 
unequal in point of force, the British being greatly the 
superiors ; yet none was more decisive. 

The British sui)eriority observable at Lake Cham- 
superi- plain and elsewhere requires a word of ex})lanation. 
•^^' y- Napoleon, fallen some months before, had left the 
armies and fleets of Great Britain free to act in oth(?r 
scenes than those to which they had been so long confined. 
The war with the United States had acquired no new 
importance in sight of the British authorities ; but it was 
time to crush the adversary that had dared to brave them. 
The troops transported to America — some to Canada, as 
we have seen, some to other places, as we shall soon see — 
were superior to the Americans generally in numbers, and 
always in appointments and in discipline. They were the 
men to whom France had succumbed ; it must have seemed 
impossible that the United States should resist them. 
Successes The apprchcnsions of the enemy, aroused by some 
at sea. ^f ^j^g operations on land, had been highly excited 
by some of those at sea. Before the gallant actions upon 
the lakes, a succession of remarkable exploits had occurred 
wpon the ocean. It had been the policy of the republican 
administration to keep down the navy which their federalist 
predecessors had encouraged. But the navy, or that frag- 
ment of one which remained, returned good for evil. The 



364 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

frigate Essex, under Captain Porter, took the sloop of war 
Alert off the northern coast, (August 13, 1812;) the frigate 
Constitution, Captain Isaac Hull, took the frigate Guerriere 
in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, (August 19 ;) the sloop of 
war Wasp, Captain Jones, took the brig Frolic, both, how- 
ever, falling prizes to the seventy-four Poictiers, not far 
from the Bermuda^s, (October 13;) the frigate .United 
States, Captain Decatur, took the frigate Macedonian off the 
Azores, (October 25 ;) and the Constitution again, now 
under Captain Bainbridge, took the frigate Java off Brazil, 
(December 29.) This series of triumphs was broken by 
but two reverses, the capture of the brig Nautilus by the 
British squadron, and that of the brig Vixen by the British 
frigate Southampton, both off the Atlantic coast. Nothing 
could be more striking than the effect upon botli the nations 
that were at war. The British started with amazement, 
not to say terror, at the idea of their ships, their cherished 
instruments of superiority at sea, yielding to an enemy. 
The Americans were proportionately animated ; better still, 
they w^ere for once united in a common feeling of pride and 
national honor. 

Here, however, the imiuilse ceased, or began to 
quciit cease. The navy was too inconsiderable to con- 
lexerscs. ^j^^^^^ ^|^^ coutcst, the nation too inactive to recruit 
its numbers and its powers. The captures of the succeed- 
ing period of the war, though made with quite as much 
gallantry, were of much less importance ; while one vessel 
after another, beginning with the frigate Chesapeake, off 
Boston harbor, (June 1, 1813,) was forced to strike to the 
enemy. Many of the larger ships w^ere hemmed in by the 
British blockade, when this, commencing with the war, was 
extended along the entire coast. The last glimmer of naval 
victory for the time was the defeat of the sloop of Avar 
Avon by the Wasp, Captain Blakely, off the French coast, 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 365 

(September 1, 1814.) But a few weeks later, the "Wasp 
was lost with all its crew, leaving not a single vessel of the 
United States navy on the seas. Every one that had 
escaped the perils of the ocean and of war was shut up in 
port behind the greatly superior squadrons of Great Britain. 
The coast, from the first blockaded, and occa- 

Losses ^ 

upon the sionally visited by invading parties of the British, 
<=«^s*' was in an appalling state, (1814.) Eastport Avas 
taken ; Castine, Belfast, and Machias were seized, with 
claims against the whole country east of the Penobscot; 
Cape Cod, or some of the towns upon it, had to purchase 
safety ; Stonington was bombarded. Fortifications were 
hastily thrown up wherever they could be by the Ameri- 
cans ; the militia was called out by tli^ states, and the 
general government was urged to despatch its regular 
troops to the menaced shores. It was officially announced 
by the British Admiral Cochrane that he was imperatively 
instructed " to destroy and lay waste all towns and districts 
of the United States found accessive to the attack of 
British armaments." This was not war, but devastation. 
Capture The Chesapeake, long a favorite point for the 
of Wash- British descents, was now occupied by a larjre, 

ington . ' 1 J & > 

and Alex- indeed a double fleet, under Admirals Cochrane 
andna. ^^^ Cockburn, with several thousand land troops 
and marines under General Ross. This body, landing 
about fifty miles from Wasliington, marched against that 
city, while the American militia retreated hither and 
thither, making a stand for a few moments only at Bladens- 
burg, (August 24.) On the evening following this rout, 
the British took possession of Washington, and next day 
proceeded to carry out the orders announced by the admiral. 
Stores were de^royed ; a frigate and a sloop were burned ; 
the public buildings, including the Capitol, and even the man- 
sion of the president, were plundered and fired. Against 
31^^ 



SGG TAUT IV. 17J7-i;>>J. 

this " unwarrantable extension of the ravages of war," 
it is styled by a British writer, the United States had 
right to complain, remembering the burning of the Par 
ment House at York, or the destruction of Newark, in 
preceding year, although both these outrages had b 
already avenged on the New Yoi-k frontier. A few ho 
were enough for the work of ruin at Washington, (Auc 
25,'^ and the British returned to their ships. The ss 
di-'- (August 29) some frigates appeared off Alexand 
and extorted an enormous ransom for the town. Ev 
thing on the American side was helplessness and subr 
sion. The president and his cabinet had reviewed 
troops, which mustered to the number of several thousan 
generals and offiicers had been thick upon the field ; 
there was no consistent counsel, no steadfast action, ; 
the country lay as open to the enemy as if it had b 
uninhabited. 
^ ^ It is a relief to turn to Baltimore. Fresh fi 

Defence 

ofRaiti- their marauding victories, the British landed 
North Point, some miles below that city. T] 
were too strong for the Americans, who retired, but 
until after a bravely contested battle, in which the Brii 
commander, General Ross, was slain, (September 12.) 
the army advanced against the town, the next day, the f 
bombarded Fort McHenry, an inconsiderable defence j 
below Baltimore. But the bombardment and the adva 
proving ineffectual, the invaders retreated. They had b 
courageously met, triumphantly repelled. North Point ; 
Fort McHenry are names which shine out, like those 
Erie and Champlain, brilliant amidst encompassing da 
ness. 

Indian -^.s if One war were not enough for a nation 

foes. |^j^j,j pressed, another had broken out. The Indi: 
on the north-west, the followers of Tecumseh, and otli 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 3G7 

besides, were but the allies of the British. Independent 
foes, fighting altogether for themselves, uprose in the Creeks 
of the Mississippi Territory, where they surprised some 
hundreds of Americans at Fort Mimms, (August, 1813.) 
Numerous bodies of border volunteers at once started for 
the haunts of the enemy, chief amongst the number being 
the troops of Tennessee, under General Jackson. Pene- 
trating into the heart of the Creek country, after various 
bloody encounters, Jackson at length routed the main body 
of the foe at a place called Tohopeka, (March 27, 1814.) 
A few months after, he concluded a treaty, by which the 
Creeks surrendered the larger part of their territory. 
National Euougli remained, as has been seen, to keep the 
straits, nation in sad straits. There were various causes to 
produce the same effect. To raise the very first essential 
for carrying on a war, a sufhcient army, had been found 
impossible, notwithstanding all sorts of new provisions to 
facilitate the operation. It was in vain to increase the 
bounties, in vain even to authorize the enlistment of minors 
without the consent of their parents or masters ; * all allure- 
ments failed. The chief reliance of the government was 
necessarily upon the militia, about which the same contro- 
versies continued as those already mentioned between the 
federal and the state authorities. Yet, to show the extent 
to which the opposition party indulged itself in embarrass- 
ing the government, an alarm was sounded against the 
national forces, small though they were, as threatening the 
liberties of the country. But the army was not the only 
point of difficulty. To prevent supplies to the forces of 
the enemy, as well as to cut him off from all advantages of 
commerce with the United States, a new embargo was laid, 



* Rejected, when first proposed to Congress, but afterwards carried, 
(December, 1814.) 



368 PART IV. 1797-1S50. 

(December, 1813.) So severe were its restrictions, affect- 
ing even the coasting trade and the fishery, that Massachu- 
setts called it another Boston port bill, and pronounced it, 
by her legislature, to be unconstitutional. It was repealed 
in a few months, and with it tlie non-importation act, Avhich, 
in one shape or another, had hung upon the commercial 
interests of the nation, for years, (April, 1814.) More 
serious by far were the financial embarrassments of the 
government. All efforts to relieve the treasury had been 
wholly inadequate. Loan after loan was contracted ; tax 
after tax was laid, until carriages, furniture, paper, and even 
watches, were assessed, while plans were formed for other 
means, such as the creation of a national bank, the earlier 
one having expired according to the provisions of its char- 
ter. But the state to which the finances at length arrived 
was this, that Avhile eleven millions of revenue were all to 
be counted upon, — ten from taxes, and only one from cus- 
tom duties, — fifty millions were needed for the expendi- 
tures of the year, (1815.) It did not ease matters when a 
large number of the banks of the country suspended specie 
payments, (August, 1814.) 

The opposition to the Avar had never ceased. It 
coutro- rested, indeed, on foundations too deep to be lightly 
moved. Below the points immediately relating to 
the war itself, were the earlier questions arismg durhig the 
operation of the government, nay, the still earlier ones, that 
arose Avith the government — the questions of the Constitu- 
tion. All these had been brought out into contrast and into 
collision hj the conflict with Great Britain. Such old top- 
ics as the relations of the national and the state govern- 
ments came up for fresh controversy. " The government 
of the United States," declared the federalist chief magis- 
trate of Massachusetts, " is founded on -the state govern- 
ments, and must be supported by them." There might be 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. . 369 

a change of sides ; federalists might stand where republicans 
had stood, and republicans where federalists had done ; but 
the divisions were the same. Even those between the north 
and the south reappeared, and with wider lines, in the midst 
of the war, which, as a general rule, the south supj^wrted 
and the north opposed. 

Hartford "^^^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^ Convention of tlie party, or, as the 
Conven- phrasc ran, of the states opposing the war, was 
started in Massachusetts. So little countenance did 
it receive, as to be dropped for several months, when 
increasing trials led to increasing struggles. It was then 
renewed, but in the more modest guise of " a conference 
between those states the affinity of Avhose interests is closest, 
and whose habits of intercourse from local and other causes 
are most frequent ; " in other words, the New England 
States ; but action upon subjects of a national nature was 
to be left, should the conference deem it expedient, " to a 
future convention from all the states in the Union." The 
Massachusetts legislature appointed twelve delegates to 
represent lier in the conference, and invited her sister states 
of New England to do likewise, (October, 1814.) Con- 
necticut responded by appointing seven delegates, and desig- 
nating Hartford as the place for the conference to meet. 
Rhode Island appointed four delegates ; two counties in 
New Hampshire and one county in Vermont, one delegate 
each. Twenty-six were chosen, all but two of whom were 
present on the opening of the conference at Hartford, 
(December 15.) The other two afterwards appeared, con- 
stituting, with the secretary, an assembly of twenty-seven. 
Charges of So Small was the body to which an immense 
iiisuniou. importance was attached at and after the time, but 
rather by its opponents than its adherents. The latter re- 
garded it just as it was, a meeting of men to whom the 
greater part of New England was glad to intrust its shat- 



370 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

tered interests, but without any deep-seated expectation of 
succor, so strong against them was the majority of the 
nation. To this majority, however, or to its mouthpieces, 
the assembly at Hartford wore a different aspect. It was 
the last desperate stake, the administration party urged, of 
the opposition ; lost or won, it hastened the issue of disunion 
so long suspected as prepared. Whatever extremes the fed- 
eralists may have fallen into, there is no proof of their 
intending to separate from their countrymen. The call of 
the Massachusetts authorities for this very conference at 
Hartford proposed such deliberations and such measures, 
only, as were " not repugnant to their obligations as mem- 
bers of the Union." That they were in earnest appears 
from the proceedings of the conference, or the Convention, 
as it is generally called. 

The Convention, of which Georw Cabot, of Mas- 
Proceed- 
ings of the s<'^chusetts, was the president, and Harrison Gray 

ficr''" ^^^^' ^^^^ ^^ Massachusetts, the leading member, 
addressed itself to its work with prayer. It found 
two classes of " dangers and grievances," as it entitled them, 
to be considered: one which required present relief, the 
other which might be left for future redress. Of the first, 
the chief were the illegal course of the government in rela- 
tion to the militia and the destitution of all defensive re- 
sources in which New England was left. To meet these 
dilficulties, the Convention suggested that the New England 
States might be allowed to assume their own defence, and, 
further, that a reasonable portion of the taxes assessed upon 
them by the general government should be retained by 
them to cover the expenses of defending themselves. As 
to tlie second class of complaints, embracing most of the 
matters that had been urged against the republican admin- 
istnUions by the federalists, the Convention set forth seven 
amendments to the Constitution. These were all prohib- 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 371 

itory : one against any representation of slaves ; another 
against any embargo of longer duration tiian sixty days ; 
three others against any law of non-intercourse, any war, 
unless it were defensive, any admission of a ne\V state, ex- 
cept by a two thirds vote in Congress ; a sixth against the 
eligibihty of persons " hereafter to be naturalized " to Con- 
gress or to any civil office under the United States ; and a 
seventh against the reelection of a president, or the election 
of two successive presidents from the same state. In pro- 
posing these amendments, the Convention declared " that no 
hostihty to the Constitution is meditated." After providing 
for a second Convention at Boston, in case " peace should 
not be concluded and the defence of these states should be 
rejected," the Convention adjourned, having been three 
weeks in session, (January 5, 1815.) 

The results were almost null. They might be 
Results, g^.^ ^^ have been altogether so, but for a law passed 
by Congress without any apparent reference to the Con- 
vention, ordering that militia should " be employed in the 
state raising the same or in an adjoining state, and not else- 
where, except with the assent of the executive of the state 
so raising the same," (January.) Otherwise, nothing fol- 
lowed the much dreaded Convention. The commissioners 
appointed to apply to the general government on the part 
of Massachusetts, for leave to carry out the recommenda- 
tions of the Convention touching the self-defence of the 
states, found the war at an end when they reached Wash- 
ington. The constitutional amendments were rejected by 
the states to which they were proposed. 

Meanwhile proceedings on which far less stress 
tion in has bccu laid than upon those of the Hartford Con- 
Conuecti- ygj^^^ion, had occurred in Connecticut and Massachu- 

cut and 

Massachu- sctts. The legislatures of those states passed acts 
^^ *^ in direct conflict with a recent statute of the Uni!ed 



372 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

States regarding: the enlistment of minors. So far was tln';-^ 
contradicted by the measures in question, that the parties 
engaged in enhstmg minors were subjected to line and 
imprisonment, (January, 1815.) It was not the first time 
that these states had set themselves against the Union. 
Both had taken ground against the embargo, Connecticut 
by statute and Massachusetts by her judicial tribunals. 
Massachusetts had more lately resisted the measures of the 
government, as we shall see, in relation to British prison- 
ers. Nullihcation was far beyond the doctrines of the Con- 
vention. That body had declared itself in this wise : " That 
acts of Congress in violation of the Constitution are abso- 
lutely void is an mideniable position. It does not, however, 
consist with the respect and forbearance due Trom a confed- 
erate state towards the general government, to fly to open 
resistance upon every infraction of the Constitution." But 
passions were high, and nullification came naturally to New 
England. 

Defence of From thcsc Strifes let us return to the less serious 
Louisiana, ^^j^gg ^f ^\^q battle field. Late in the summer pre- 
ceding the Hartford Convention, a British party landed at 
Pensacola, whose Spanish possessors were supposed to be 
inclined to side against the United States. An attack, in 
the early autumn, upon Fort Bowyer, tliirty miles from 
Mobile, was repelled by the small but heroic garrison under 
Major Lawrence, (September 15.) A month or two after- 
wards. General Jackson advanced against Pensacola with a 
force so formidable that the British withdrew, Jackson then 
resigning the town to the Spanish authorities, and repairing 
to New Orleans, against which the enemy was believed to 
be preparing an expedition, (November.) There he busied 
himself in raising his forces and providing his defences, 
imtil the British arrived upon the coast. After capturing a 
feeble flotilla of the Americans, they began their advance 



WAIl WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 373 

against the capital of Louisiana, (December.) ^They were 
ten thousand and upwards ; the Americans not more than 
half as numerous. Jackson, on learning their approach, 
marched directly against them, surprising them in their 
camp by night, and dealing them a blow from wliicli they 
hardly seem to have recovered, (December 23.) They 
soon, however, resumed the offensive under Sir Edward 
l^akenham, advancing thrice against the American lines, 
l)ut thrice retreating. The last action goes by the name of. 
the battle of New Orleans. It resulted in the defeat of the 
enemy, witli the loss of Pakenbam and two thousand be- 
sides, the Americans losing less than a hundred, (January 
8, 1815.) The British retired to the sea, taking Fort 
Bowyer, the same that had resisted an attack the autumn 
before, (February 12.) Louisiana had been nobly de- 
fended, and not by the energy of Jackson alone, nor by the 
resolution of her own people, but by the generous spirit 
with which the entire south-west sent its ^ons to her 
rescue. 
,, ,. , Jackson had hesitated at nothing; in defendini]^ 

Martial ^ ^ 

law at. New New Orleans. LTpon the approach of the l^ritish, 
r cans, j^^ proclaimed martial Law ; he continued it after 
•their departure. The author of a newspaper article reflect- 
ing upon the general's cdnduct was sent to prison to await 
trial for life. The United States district judge was arrested 
and expelled from the city for having issued a writ of 
habeas corpus in the prisoner's behalf; and on the district 
attorney's applying to the state court in behalf of the judge, 
he, too, was banished. On the proclamation of peace, mar- 
tial law was necessarily suspended. The judge returned, 
and summoning the general before him, imposed a fine of 
one thousand dollars. The sum was paid by Jackson, but 
was offered to be repaid to him by a subscription, which 
32 



374 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

proved public opinion* to sustain his determined course.* 
It was characteristic of the man and of his adherents in 
after years. 

e. r- ^^liilc these events were going on b j land, the 
ance of sca was for a time abandoned, at least by all na- 
e navy, ^j^^^^j vcsscls. Privatecrs continued their work of 
plunder and of destruction — a work which, however miser- 
able to contemplate, doubtless had its effect in bringing the 
war to a close. But the navy of the nation had disappeared 
'from the ocean. It presently reappeared in the shape of its 
pride and ornament, the Constitution, which, under her new 
commander, Stewart, got to sea from Boston, (December, 
1814.) The President, Hornet, and Peacock did the same 
from New York, the President being immediately captured, 
though not without a severe combat, by the British cruisers, 
(January, 1815.) Her loss was avenged by the sister ves- 
sels ; the Constitution taking two sloops of war at once — 
the Cyane and the Levant — off Madeira, (February 20 ;) 
the Hornet sloop taking the Penguin brig off the Island of 
Tristan d'Acunha, (March 23 ;) and the Peacock sloop 
taking the Nautilus, an East India Company's cruiser, off 
Sumatra, (June 30.) f All these actions were subsequent 
to a treaty of peace. 

The war had not continued a. year when the administra- 
tion accepted an offer of Russian mediation, and despatched 

* Refusing to receive the subscription, he was reimbursed, near thirty 
years afterwards, by order of Congress, 

t "Thus terminated at sea," says the British historian Alison, towards 
the close of an account by no means partial to the American side, " this 
memorable contest, in which the" English, for the first time for a century 
and a half, met with equal antagonists on their own element ; and in re- 
counting which, the British historian, at a loss whether to admire most 
the devoted heroism of his own countrymen or the gallant bearing of 
their antagonists, feels almost equally warmed in narrating either side of 
the strife." 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 375 

Peace re- ^""^^^J^ ^^ *^'^^^ ^^ peace. The cliief points to be 
limina- provided for, according to the instructions, were, 
first, impressments, of which, it will be remembered, 
the settlement had been facilitated by an American law 
prohibiting the enlistment of British seamen in the sei'vice 
of the United States, and next, the matter of blockades, the 
only part of the anti-neutral system which had not been 
abandoned by the British, (March, 1813.) Great Britain 
declined the mediation of Russia, but offered to enter into 
negotiations either at London or at Gottenburg. The 
American government chose the latter place, and appointed 
five commissioners — John Quincy Adams, James A. Bay- 
ard, Henry Clay, Jonathan Russell, and Albert Gallatin — 
to negotiate a treaty, under much the same instructions as 
before, (January, February, 1814.) But on the news of 
the triumph of Great -Britain and her allies over Najjoleon, 
the demands of the United States w^ere sensibly modified. 
The opposition alleged it to be from fear of the foe, whose 
power was so much increased by the issue of the European 
war. But the administration and its party declared that 
the pacification of Europe did away with the very abuses 
of which America had to complain ; in other words, that 
there would be no blockades or impressments in time of 
peace. At all events, the envoys were directed to leave 
these points for future negotiation, confining themselves at 
present to the conclusion of a general treaty. They were 
also authorized to treat at London, if they thought the 
awival of British commissioners at Gottenburg was likely 
to be delayed, (June.) The new instructions found the 
commissioners of both nations in session at Ghent, (Au- 
gust 8.) 

Treaty of Four months and a half elapsed before coming to 
Ghent, terms. The British demands, especially on the 
point of retaining the conquests made during the war, were 



S76 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

altogether inadmissible. Fortunately, they were yielded ; 
the disposal of the American question being desirable in 
the uncertain state of Euro^^ean affairs. A treaty was con- 
sequently framed, restoring the conquests on either side, 
and providing commissioners to arrange the boundary and 
other minor questions between the nations, (December 24.) 
The objects of the war, according to the declarations at its 
outbreak, were not mentioned in the articles by which it 
was closed ; yet the United States did not hesitate to ratify 
the treaty, (February 18.) Within a week afterwards, tjie 
president recommended " the navigation of American ves- 
sels exclusively by American seamen, either natives or such 
as are already naturalized ; " the reason assigned being " to 
guard against incidents which, during the periods of war in 
Europe, might tend to interrupt peace." AVliat could not 
be gained by treaty might be secured by legislation.-- 

Though much was waived for the sake of peace, 
tion of one principle, if no more, had been maintained for 
foreign- ^^^j, couutry. In the first year of the war, the 
British had set out to treat some Irishmen taken 
while fighting on the American side, not as ordinary pris- 
oners of war, but as traitors to Great Britain. On their 
being sent to be tried for treason in England, Congress 
aroused itself in their behalf, and authorized the adoption 
of retaliatory measures. An equal number of British cap- 
tives was presently imprisoned, and when the British 
retorted by ordering twice as many American ofiicers into 
confinement, the Americans did the same by the British 
officers in their power. The British government went so 
far as to order its commanders, in case any retaliation was 
inflicted upon the j^risoners in American hands, to destroy 
the towns and their inhabitants upon the coast. It was at 
this juncture that Massachusetts, as already alluded to, 
appeared in the lines of nullification. All along, there had 



WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 377 

bcv^n very little sympathy, among the opposition, for the 
humane professions of defending the sailor and the stranger, 
upon which the administration party were apt to discourse, 
rather than to act. The federalist majority in Massachu- 
setts, caring little for the fate of the Irish prisoners, forbade 
the use of the state prisons for the British officers now 
ordered to be confined, (Februaiy, 1814.) The matter 
was set at rest by the retraction of the British government, 
who consented to treat the Irishmen as prisoners of war. 
Proclamation was made pardoning all past offences of the 
sort, but threatening future ones with the penalties of trea- 
son ; a threat that was never attempted to be fulfilled, 
(July.) So the Americans gained their point, a point for 
which the early settlers had labored, and for which the true 
men of the revolution had struggled — the protection of 
foreigners. 

Indian " Some months after the treaty of Ghent, a treaty 
treaty, ^^s made with the Indians of the north-west. Such 
as had been at war agreed to bury the tomahawk, and to 
join with such as had been at peace in new relations with 
the United States, (September.) 

A]"^erine Another treaty had been made by this time. It- 
treaty, ^y^g ^yj^]^ ^l^g j^gy ^f Algiers, who had gone to war 
with the United States in the same year that Great Britain 
did. The United States, however, had paid no attention to 
the inferior enemy until relieved of the superior. Then 
war was declared, and a fleet despatched, under Commodore 
Decatur, by which captures were made, and terms dictated 
to the Algerine. The treaty not only surrendered all 
American prisoners, and indemnified all American losses in 
the war, but renounced the claim of tribute on the part of 
Algiers, (June.) Tunis and Tripoli being brought to terms, 
the United States were no longer tributary to pirates. 
32* 



378 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

Bxhaus- There had been strength enough to deal the blow 
tion of the against Algiers. But the nation was in a state of 
nearly complete exhaustion. This remark is not 
meant to apply to individual cases of embarrassment and 
destitution produced by the war ; for while many had lost, 
as many more had gained a competence or a fortune. But 
the nation, as a whole, was, for the moment, exhausted. 
Madison had been reelected president, with Elbridge Gerry 
as vice president, in the first year of the war with Great 
Britain. If he really consented to war as the price of his 
reelection, he had had his reward. The difficulties ©f his 
second term, more serious than those of any other adminis- 
tration in our history, weighed upon him, crushed him. He 
welcomed peace, as his party welcomed it, — in fact, as the 
whole nation welcomed it, — with the same sensations of 
rehef that men would feel in an earthquake, when the 
earth, yawning at their feet, suddenly closed. To see from 
what the government and the nation were saved, it is 
sufficient to read that systems of conscription for the army 
and of impressment for the navy were amongst the projects 
pending at the close of a war which had increased the 
public debt by one hundred and twenty milHons. 



CHAPTER III. 

Missouri Compromise. 

Foreign The idea that the United States emerged from 
affairs. ii^Q contest with Great Britain as a new nation, its 
citizens self-satisfied, and strangers applauding, is certainly a 
grateful one. But it is difficult to find the authority upon 
wiiich it rests. To begin with foreign powers, and with the 
one most likely to be impressed with American grandeur 
— Great Britain ; she appears absorbed in other interests 
of much larger importance in her eyes. A commercial 
convention was framed in the summer following the peace ; 
but it left many matters undetermined, many unsatisfactorily 
determined. As for the negotiations ordered by the treaty 
of Ghent, they were begun upon, yet so idly, that conclu- 
sions were not reached for years and years. Other nations 
showed even less inclination to come to terms. France, 
Spain, Naples, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden 
were all in arrears on the score of indemnities for spoliations 
upon American commerce ; and most of them remained in 
arrears until a subsequent period. An act of Congress 
invited maritime powers to abandon the restrictions hitherto 
placed upon commerce ; but the invitation was by no means 
generally accepted, (March, 1815.) 

Domestic ^^ liomc, affairs were in an equally unsettled 
affairs, gtatc. The War establishment was lowered ; a new 
tariff was adopted at once, to increase the revenue of the 
government, and to encourage the industry of the people ; 

(379) 



380 PART IT. 1797-1850. 

the system of taxation Avas reformed by the gradual aboli- 
tion of direct and internal taxes. To aid in restoring the 
currency, and in directing tlie finances generally, a new 
Bank of the United States was chartered, (March, 1816.) 
All this was not done in a day ; nor was there any instanta- 
neous revival of commerce and of industry. On the con- 
trary, periods of depression recurred, in which individual 
fortunes vanished and national resources failed. But th 
general tendency was towards recovery from the disorder, 
into which the country had been plunged by the recent wai 
Adminis- Madison's troubled administration came to an 
trations. ' gj-^^j^ Jamcs Mouroc was the president for the next 
eight years, (1817-25,) with Daniel D. Tompkins as vicf 
president. Monroe, once an extreme, but latterly a moder- 
ate republican, so far conciliated all parties as to be reelect- 
ed with but one electoral vote against him. Old parties 
were dying out. The great question of the period, to be 
set forth presently, was one with which republicans and 
federalists, as such, had nothing to do. 

Seminole The ncw administration had but just opened, 
war. when the Seminole war, as it was styled, broke 
out with the Creeks of Georgia and Florida. Conflicts 
between the borderers and some of the Indians lingering in 
the territory, ceded several years before, led to a determina- 
tion of the United States government to clear the country 
of the hostile tribes, (November, 1817.) A war, of course, 
ensued, beginning with massacres on both sides, and ending 
with a spoiling, burning, slaying expedition, half militia 
and half Indians, under General Jackson, the conqueror 
of the Creeks in the preceding war, (March, 1818.) On 
the pretext that the Spanisli authorities countenanced the 
hostihties of the Indians, Jackson took St. Mark's and Pen- 
sacola, not without some ideas of seizing even St. Augus- 
tine. He also put to death, within the Spanish limits, two 



MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 381 

Sritisli subjects accused of stirring up the Indians, (]Marcli, 
-May.) So that the war, though called the Seminole, might 
'as well be called the Florida war. The Spanish minister 
protested against the invasion of the Florida territory, of 
which the restitution was immediately ordered at Washing- 
ton, though not without approbation of the course pursued 
by Jackson. 

, . . Florida was a sore spot on more accounts than 
ion of one. The old trouble of boundaries had never 
been settled; but that was a tritle compared with 
•the later troubles arising from fugitive criminals, fugitive 
'slaves, smugglers, pirates, and, as recently shown, Indians, 
^to whom Florida furnished not only a refuge, but a starting 
'point. The Spanish authorities, themselves by no means 
■ inclined to respect their neighbors of the United States, 
had no power to make others respect them. " This coun- 
try," said President Monroe, referring to Florida, " had, in 
fact, become the theatre of every species of lawless adven» 
ture." Matters there were not improved by the uncertain 
relations still continuing between the United States and 
Spain. Former difficulties, especially those upon American 
indemnities, were not settled ; while new ones had gathered 
in consequence of South American revolutions, and North 
American dispositions to side with the revolutionists. The 
proposal of an earlier time to purchase Florida was renewed 
by the United States. Its acceptance was impeded chiefly 
by differences on the boundary between Louisiana and the 
Spanish Mexico, but this being settled to begin at the 
Sabine River, a treaty was concluded. On the payment 
of five millions by the American government to citizens 
who claimed indemnity from Spain, that power agreed to 
relinquish the Floridas, East and West, (February 22, 
1819.) It was nearly two years, however, before Spain 
ratified the treaty, and fully two before Florida Territory 
formed a part of the United States, (1821.) 



382 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

New The State of Connecticut, hitherto content witn 

states. i^QY charter government, at length adopted a new 
constitution, in which there was but little improvement upon 
the old one, except in making suffrage general and the sup- 
port of a church system voluntary, (1818.) New constitu- 
tions and new states were constantly in process of forma- 
tion. Indiana, (December 11, 1816,) Mississippi, (December 
10, 1817,) Illinois, (Decembers, 1818,) and Alabama,* (De- 
cember 14, 1819,) all became members of the Union. 
-, , Before the definite accession of Alabama, Mis- 

rroposal ' 

of Mis- souri was proposed as a candidate for admission. It 
was a slaveholding territory. But when the pre- 
liminary steps to its becoming a state were begun upon in 
Congress, a New York representative, James W. Tall- 
madge, moved that no more slaves should be brought in, 
and tiiat the children of those already there should be lib- 
erated at the age of twenty-five. On the failure of this 
motion, another New York representative, John W. Taylor, 
moved to prohibit slavery in the entire territory to the 
north of latitude 36° 30'. This, too, was lost. A bill set- 
ting off the portion of Missouri Territory to the south of 
the line just named, as the Territory of Ai-kansas, was 
passed. But nothing Avas done towards establishing the 
State of Missouri, (February, March, 1819.) 
Question Nothing, unless it were the debate, in which the 
of slavery. qygglJQj^ at issuc bccamc clear. There were two 
reasons, it then appeared, for making Missouri a free state ; 
one, that it was the turn for a free state, the last (Ala- 
bama) t having been a slave state ; while, of the eight 
admitted since the Constitution, four had been free and four 

* The eastern half of the Mississippi Territory became the Territory of 
Alabama in 1817. 

t Not yet actually admitted, but authorized to apply for admission iu 
the usual way. 



MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 383 

slave states. Another and a broader reason was urged, to 
the effect that slavery ought not to be permitted in any state 
or territory where it could be i)rohibited. On this, the 
northern views were the more earnest, in that the nation 
had committed itself by successive acts to a course too tol- 
erant, if not too favorable, towards slavery. First, it will 
be recollected, came the organization of the Territory South 
of the Ohio ; next, that of the Mississippi Territory ; and 
afterwards, the acquisition and the organization of Louisi- 
ana. All these proceedings were national, and all either 
acknowledged or extended the area of slavery. Kentucky 
had been admitted a slave state as a part of Virginia ; Mis- 
sissippi and Alabama as parts of the. Mississippi Territory. 
To carry out the same course would hav^ insured the ad- 
mission of Missouri as a part of the Louisiana acquisition ; 
and on this the southern members strongly insisted. To 
this, on the contrary, the north demurred, determined, if 
possible, to stop the movement that had thus far prevailed. 
Constitu- "^ good deal of discussion arose on the point of 
tiunai ar- the treaty by which Louisiana had been acquired. 
guintn . rpj^.g^ argued one party, by investing the inhabitants 
of the Louisiana Territory with all the rights of United 
States citizens, secures their privileges ^s slaveholders ; a 
position, of course, opposed by northern men. But much 
greater stress was laid on the constitutional argument 
hinted at in a former connection. The proposal to oblige 
Missouri to become a free state, said the advocates of sla- 
very, is a violation of the Constitution. That sovereign 
authority, they declared, leaves the state itself in all cases 
to settle the matter of slavery, as well as all other matters 
not expressly subjected to the general government. To 
this a twofold answer was returned: first, that Missouri 
was nof a state, but a territory, and therefore subject to the 
control of Congress ; and, second, that even if regarded as a 



384 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

state, she would Hot be one of the original thirteen, to which 
alone belonged the powers reserved under the Constitution. 
Therefore Congress could deal with her as it pleased. It 
^was moreover argued that Congress ought to arrest the 
progress of slavery, as a point upon which the national wel- 
fare was staked ; a point, therefore, to which the authority 
of the general government was expressly and indispensably 
applicable according to the Constitution. 

Arguments so divergent, and principles so oppo- 
vvosire • gj^^^ ^g thosc wliicli havo been sketched, show that 
there were two sides in the controversy. Other considera- 
tions were urged. One in particular was brought forward 
by the slave state party, that the slaves, as well as the free- 
men of the natioi^ were entitled to profit by its increase ; in 
short, that humanity required the extension of slavery. 
Equally extreme opinions were preferred on the opposing 
side. In thus stating the various turns given to the ques- 
tion, we have gone somewhat beyond the limits of the ori- 
ginal debate. It was not till a later time that many of the 
positions were so decisively taken as has been described. 
But the points involved in them were clear from the 
beginning. 

Intense Had it been an outbreak of hostilities, had it been 
agitation. ^ marcli of one half the country against the other, 
there could hardly have been a more intense agitation. 
The attempted prohibition of slavery was denounced in 
Congress as the preliminary to a negro massacre, to a civil 
w^ar, to a dissolution of the Union. Out of Congress, it pro- 
voked such language as that used by the aged Jefferson : 
" The Missouri question," he wrote, " is a breaker on which 
we lose the Missouri country by revolt, and what more 
God only knows. From the battle of Bunker's Hill to the 
treaty of Paris, we never had so ominous a qyestion." 
Public meetmgs were held ; those at the south to repel the 



MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 385 

interference of tlie north, those at the north to rebuke the 
pretensions of the south. The arguments of Congress, 
rej:)eated again and again, kept up the ferment. It was not 
the mere agitator, however, whether poHtician or philan- 
thropist, who took the lead ; grave men, men of years and 
of honors, entered into the lists on both sides. The dispute 
extended into the tribunals and the legislatures of the states, 
the northern declaring that Missouri must be for freemen 
only, the southern that it must be for freemen and for 
slaves. 

Maine ^^ stood the matter as the year drew to a close 

seeks ad- and Congrcss reassembled. A new turn was then 
mission, g-^^j-j |.^^ ^1^^ question, by the application of Maine 
to be received as a state, Massachusetts having consented to 
the separation. Here, then, is the free state to match with 
Alabama, exclaimed the partisans of slavery in Missouri : 
now give us our slave state. But the opponents of slavery 
did not yield ; they had planted themselves on principles, 
they said, not on numbers. At this the south was naturally 
indignant. It had been a plea all along that a free state 
was due to the north ; and now, when one was forthcoming, 
two were claimed. If the reply was made that Maine, 
being but a division of Massachusetts, was no addition to 
the northern strength, this did not content the south. Feel- 
ings of bitterness and of injustice were aroused between 
both parties ; both drew farther apart. If peace did not 
come, war would, and that soon. 

The com- The Senate united Maine and Missouri in the 
promise, game bill and on the same terms, that is, without 
any restriction upon slavery. But a clause, introduced on 
the motion of Jesse B. Thomas, of Illinois, prohibited the 
introduction of slavery into any portion of the Louisiana 
Territory as yet unorganized, leaving Louisiana the state 
and Arkansas the territory, as well as Missouri, just what 
33 



S86 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

they were, that is, shweholding. This was the Missouri 
Compromise. It came from the north. On the part of the 
north, it yielded the claim to Missouri as a free state ; on 
the part of the south, it yielded the claim to the immensely 
larger regions which stretched above and beyond Mis- 
souri to the Pacific. The line of 36° 30', proposed the 
year before, was again proposed, save only that Missouri, 
though north of the line, was to be a Southern State. Thus 
the Senate determined, not without opposition from both 
sides. The House, "on the contrary, adopted a bill admit- 
ting Missouri, separately from Maine, and under the north- 
ern restriction concerning slavery. Words continued to run 
high. Henry Clay, still in the House, wrote that the sub- 
ject " engrosses the whole thoughts of the members, and 
constitutes almost the only topic of conversation." But the 
proposal of the Compromise augured the return of tranquil- 
lity. A committee of conference between the two branches 
of Congress led to the agi'cement of both Senate and House 
upon a bill admitting Missouri, after her constitution should 
be formed, free of restrictions, but prohibiting slavery north 
of the line of 36° 30', (March 3, 1820.) Maine was ad- 
mitted at the same time, (March 3-15.) 

The Compromise prohibited slavery in the desig- 
interpre- natcd region forever. This was the letter; but it 
a lous. ^^^^^ under different interpretations. When Presi- 
dent Monroe consulted his cabinet upon the question of 
approving the act of Congress, all but his secretary of state, 
John Quincy Adams, inclined to read the prohibition of 
slavery as applying only to the territories, and not to the 
states that might arise within the prescribed boundaries. 
This was not a difference between northern and southern 
views, but one between strict and liberal constructions of 
the Constitution; the strict construction going against all 
power in Congress to restrict a state, while the liberal took 



MISSOURI COMPllOMISE. 387 

the opposite ground. So with others besides the cabinet. 
Amongst the very men who voted for the Compromise 
were many, doubtless, who understood it as applying to ter- 
ritories alone. The northern party, unquestionably, adopted 
it in its broader sense, preventing the state as well as the 
territory from establishing slavery. That there should be 
two senses attached to it from the beginning was a dark 
presage of future differences. 
. . Present differences were not yet overcome. Mis- 

Admis- ..... . 

eionof souri, rcjoicing in becoming a slaveholding state, 
Wifesouri. r^dopted a constitution which denied even free ne- 
groes the rights of citizens. On this being brought before 
Congress towards the close of the year^ (1820,) various tac- 
tics were adopted ; the extreme southern party going for 
the immediate admission oi" the state, while the extreme 
northern side urged the overthrow of state, constitution, 
and Compromise, together. Henry Clay, at the head of 
the moderate men, succeeded, after long exertions, in carry- 
ing a measure providing for the admission of Missouri as 
soon as her legislature should solemnly covenant the rights 
of citizenship to "the citizens of either of the states," 
(February, 1821.) This was done, and Missouri became a 
state, (August 10.) 

g].ivc The United States, as a nation, were far from 

trade. insensible to the evils of slavery. Domestic slave 
trade was permitted and extended. But foreign- slave trade, 
reviving to such a degree that upwards of fourteen thousand 
slaves were said to have been imported in a single year, 
(1818,) provoked general indignation. An act of Congress 
declared fresh and severer penalties to attach to the slave 
dealer, while to his unhappy victims relief was offered in 
provisions for their return to their native country, (1819.) 
Another act denounced the traffic as piracy, (1820.) The 
same denunciatioij was urged uppn foreign governments, 



388 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

one of wliich, Great Britain, prepared to enter into a con- 
vention for the purpose ; but the convention fell through, 
(1823-24.) 

Visit of In the midst of its dissensions and its weaknesses, 
Lafayette, ^j^g natiou Avas checrcd by a visit from Lafayette. 
He came in compliance with a summons from the govern- 
ment to behold the work which he had assisted in begin- 
ning, near half a century before. From the day of his 
landing (August 16, 1824) to that of his departure, (Sep- 
tember 7, 1825,) a period of more than a year, he was, as 
he described himself, " in a whirlwind of popular kindnesses 
of wliich it was impossible to have formed any previous 
conception, and in which every thing that could touch and 
flatter one was mingled." " A more interesting spectacle, 
it is believed," said President Monroe, "was never wit- 
nessed, because none could be founded on purer principles, 
none proceed from higher or more disinterested motives." 
To make some amends for his early sacrifices, pecuniary as 
well as personal, in the American cause, Congress voted 
Lafayette a township of the public domain, and a grant of 
two hundred thousand dollars. He deserved all that could 
be bestowed. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Monroe Doctrine. 

Relations ^T was time for tlie nation to assume a more 
with Cen- elevatcd attitude. No lon2;er tlie solitary republic 

tral and . /. . 

South amidst encompassing domains of distant monarchies, 
America, ^j^^ United States now formed one of a band of 
independent states, stretching from Canada to Patagonia. 
The others were the Central and South American colonies 
of Spain, which had spent years in insurrection and in war, 
before their independence was recognized by their elder 
sister of the north, (1822.) Ministers plenipotentiary were 
at the same time appointed to Mexico, Colombia, Buenos 
Ayres, and Chili. 

Monroe As if to make amends for its delay, the adminis- 
doctriue. tration resolved upon stretching out an arm of 
defence between the nascent states of the south and the 
threatening powers of Europe. The purpose of the Euro- 
pean alUes, France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, to come 
to the assistance of Spain, in subduing her insurgent colo- 
nies, was well known, when President Monroe, in his 
seventh annual message, (December 2, 1823,) announced 
that his administration had asserted in negotiations with 
Russia, " as a principle in which the rights and interests of 
the United States are involved, that the American conti- 
nents, by the fre'e and independent position which they have 
assumed and maintained, are henceforth not to be considered 
as subjects for future colonization by any European pow- 
■ 33* (389) 



390 PART lY. 1797-18-30. 

ers." " Wc owe it," continued the president, " to candor 
and to the amicable rehitions existing between the United 
States and those powers, to declare that we should consider 
any attempt on their part to extend their system to any por- 
tion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and 
safety. With the existing colonies or dependencies of any 
European power we have not interfered, and shall not 
interfere. But with the governments who have declared 
their independence, and maintained it, and whose independ- 
ence we have on great consideration and on just principles 
acknowledged, we could not view any interposition for the 
purpose of oppressing them, or controlling in any other 
manner their destiny by any European power, in any other 
light than as the manifestation of an unfriendly disposition 
towards the United States." Such was what has since been 
called the Monroe Doctrine, though the author is known to 
have been the secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, 
rather than the president. 

Its purpose was evidently twofold, directed gen- 
urpose. QY^Yij against any interference with the American 
continents on the part of Europe, except where Europe 
already possessed a foothold, and more particularly against 
the interference with which Europe, or a portion of it, was 
then menacing the republics of Central and Southern 
America. But far from its being intended to make the 
United States themselves the guardians or the rulers of 
America, the doctrine, as expounded by its real author, 
Adams, proposed " that each [American state] will guard 
by its own means against the establishment of any future 
European colony within its borders." The declaration of 
the president was designed simply to show that the nation 
undertook to countenance and to support the independence 
of its sister nations. As such, it was an honorable deed. 
" The tone which it uttered," said Daniel Webster, in the 



THE MONROE DOCTRINE. 391 

House of R-epresentatives, two years afterwards, " found a 
corresponding response in the breasts of the free i^eople of 
the United States." Congress, however, decHned to sustain 
it by "any formal action. 
„ Some time afterwards, when the author of the 

Congress ' 

of Pan- Monroe Doctrine had risen to the presidency, an 
invitation was received by the government from 
some of the Central and South American states to unite in 
a congress at Panama. The objects, ranging from mere 
commercial negotiations up to the Monroe Doctrine, were 
rather indefinite ; but Adams appointed two envoys, whom 
the Senate confirmed, and for whom the House made the 
necessary appropriations, though not without great opposi- 
tion, (December, 1825 — March, 1826.) One of the en- 
voys died, the other did not go upon his mission ; so that 
the congress began and ended without any representation 
from the United States, (June — July.) It adjourned to 
meet at Tacubaya, near Mexico, in the beginning of the 
following year. The ministers of the United States repaired 
to the appointed place, and at the appointed time, but there 
was no congress. 
. Thus terminated the vision of an American 

An 

American league. We Can hardly estimate the consequences 
«a«ue. ^^ .^^ having been realized — on one side, the 
perils to which the United States would have been exposed, 
and on the other, the services which they might have 
rendered, amongst such confederates as those of Central 
and of South America. 



CHAPTER V. 

Tariff Compromise. 

Admin- John Quincy Adams, the son of the second 
istra- president, was elected by the House of Represen- 
tatives — tlie electoral colIef]jes failinc^ to make a 
choice — to succeed Monroe, (^825.) Andrew Jackson, a 
rival candidate, w^as chosen by the people at the next elec- 
tion, (1829.) John C. Calhoun was vice president under 
both. Two men more unlike than Adams and Jackson, in 
associations and in principles, could hardly have been found 
amongst the politicians of the period. They resembled 
each other, however, in the resolution with which tfiey met 
the dangers of their times. 

Question "^^^^ great question before the country for several 
bofore Uic years was one as old as the Constitution ; older, 
couu ij. g^gj^^ inasmuch as it occupied a chief place in the 
debates of the Constitutional Convention. It was the 
subordination of the state to the nation. 
Geor"-ia '^^^ ^^'^^ occasion to rcvivc the question, and to 
contro- invest it with fresh importance, was a controversy 
between the national government and the govern- 
ment of Georgia. Many years had passed since that state 
consented to cede her western lands, including the present 
Alabama and Mississippi, on condition that the government 
would extinguish the Indian title to the territory of Georgia 
itself. Of twenty-five millions of acres then held by the 
Creek nation, fifteen had been bought up by the United 

(392) 



TARIFF COMPROMISE. 393 

States, and transferred to Georgia. Half of the remaining 
ten millions belonged to the Cherokees, and half to the 
Creeks, a nominal treaty with the latter of whom declared 
the United States possessors of all the Creek territory with- 
in the limits both of Georgia and of Alabama, (1825.) This 
treaty, however, agreed to by but one or two of the chiefs, 
provoked a general outbreak on the j^art of the Creeks. 
To pacify them, or rather to do common justice to them, the 
government first suspended the treaty, and then entered 
into a new one, by which the cession of land was confined 
to the Georgian territory. A longer time was also allowed 
for the removal of the Indians from the ceded country, 
(April, 182G.) What satisfied the Creeks dissatisfied the 
Georgians or their authorities. Governor Troup accused 
the administration of violating the law of the land, in the 
shape of the earlier treaty, hinting at anti-slavery motives 
for the course that had been taken, and calling upon the 
adjoining states to " stand by their arms." Not confining 
himself to protests or defensive measures, Troup sent sur- 
veyors into the Indian territory. President Adams com- 
municated the matter to Congress, asserting his intention 
" to enforce the laws, and fulfil the duties of the nation by 
all the force committed for that purpose to his charge." 
Whereat the governor wrote to the secretary of war, 
" From the first decisive act of hostility, you will be con- 
sidered and treated as a public enemy," (1827.) Fortu- 
nately, the winds ceased. The state that had set itself 
against the nation more decidedly than had ever yet been 
done returned to its senses. As for the unhappy Indians, 
not only the Creeks, but all the other tribes that could be 
persuaded to move, were gradually transported to more 
distant territories in the Avest. 

Other causes were operating to excite the states, 
or some of them, against the general government. 



Tariffs 



394 PART IV. 1797-I80O. 

Amidst the vicissitudes of industry and of trade through 
wliich the nation was passing, repeated attempts were made 
to steady affairs by a series of tariffs in favor of domestic 
productions. The first measure, intended to serve for pro- 
tection rather than for revenue, was adopted at the begin- 
ning of the period embraced in a previous chapter, (181 G.) 
It was a duty, principally, upon cotton fabrics from abroad. 
Some years afterwards, a new scale was framed, with pro- 
vision against foreign woollens, as well as cottons, (1824.) 
This not turning out as advantageous to the home manufac- 
tures as was anticipated, an effort for additional jirotection 
was made ; but at first in vain. On one side were the 
manufacturers, not merely of cotton and of woollen goods, 
but of iron, hemp, and a variety of other materials, clus- 
tered in the Northern and Central States. On the other 
were the merchants, the farmers, and the artisans of the 
same states, with almost the entire population of the agri- 
cultural south. A convention of the manufacturing inter- 
ests, attended by delegates from New Engkmd, the Middle 
States, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio, and Kentucky, was held 
at Ilarrisburg, in Pennsylvania. " We want protection," 
was the language used by the delegates, " and it matters 
not if it amounts to prohibition ; " in which spirit they 
pressed what they called the American System upon the 
federal government, (July — August, 1827.) The admin- 
istration, by the report of the secretary of the treasury, 
commended the subject to the favorable attention of Con- 
gress. That body took it up, and after protracted discus- 
sions, consented to a tariff in which the system of protec- 
tion was carried to its height. Its adversaries called the 
bill a bill of abominations, many of which, however, were 
introduced by themselves, with the avowed intention of 
making the measure as odious and as short lived as possible, 
(December, 1827 — May, 1828.) 



TARIFF COMFROMISE. 395 

All tlie interests of the north were by no means 

Nnllifica- 111 -n^ Tir • 

tioii at consulted by the recent tanri. Meetings had been 
*^*^ held to prevent its passaoe ; nor was it received, 

south. J. J. o 

when passed, without murmurs and remonstrances'. 
But it was in the south that the flames burst forth most 
violently. State rights, the relations of master and slave, 
— as well as the cotton market, — principles and inter- 
ests of every soft were declared to be threatened. While 
the tariff was in abeyance, South Carolina instructed her 
representatives to oppose the bill, taking care that "the 
state should appear as a sovereign, not as a suppliant." 
After the bill became a law. South Carolina pronounced it 
unconstitutional ; so did Georgia ; so did Virginia ; in fact, 
it was a trial among the states which should precipitate 
itself the deepest into nullification. The administration 
stood firm. " To the voice of just complaint," the president 
had said, " from any portion of their constituents, the repre- 
sentatives of the states and people will never turn away 
their ears. But so long as the duty of the foreign shall 
operate only as a bounty upon the domestic article, the 
planter, and the merchant, and the shepherd, and the hus- 
bandman will not denounce, as violations of the Constitution, 
the deliberate acts of Congress to shield the native industry 
of the Union." 

^ Jackson came into ofiice to devote himself at first to 

vais from thosc who had elected him. Never before had the 

nation been under so professedly a party rule. Its 
subjection was proved by the removals from ofiice of such 
as had served under the* previous administrations. In all 
the forty years that had elapsed since the opening of the 
government, the successive presidents had removed just 
sixty-four public officers, and no more. Jackson turned out 
the servants of government by the hundred. This imprint- 
ing a partisan character upon the j^dniinistri^tion was far 



39 G TAUT IV. 1797-1 S50. 

from being unacceptable to tbe majority of the nation. It 
was but just, they argued, that the inferior officers should 
]pe of the same views as the superior ; otherwise there 
could be no harmony. A great deal of stress, moreover, 
was laid upon the necessity of reforming the administra- 
tion ; the alleged extravagance of Adams's time having been 
sounded all o^^er the land by the partisans of Jackson. 
The clamor of the opposition against either cause of 
removal can be conceived. 

Conces- "^^^^ great question between the power of the 
sinns to state and the power of the nation was still open. 
eoigia. jjj^j^gQ^^ entered into it w^ith concessions to the state. 
AVhen the Creeks of Georgia were disposed of, there still 
remained the Cherokees of the same and the neighboring 
states. This tribe, far from being inclined to leave its 
habitations, was so much inclined to settling where it was, 
as to adopt a formal constitution, (1827.) At this, Georgia 
lost patience, and asserted her jurisdiction over the Chero- 
kees, at the same time dividing their territory, and annex- 
ing it in portions to the counties of the state, (1828-30.) 
Much the same course was taken by Alabama and 
Mississippi in relation to the Indians within their borders, 
(1829-30.) In these circumstances, the position of the gen- 
eral government was "this — that it had always undertaken 
to treat with the Indians, to protect or to molest them, as 
the case might be ; but in no event leaving them to the 
action of any separate part of the nation. Instead of 
maintaining this position in relation to the southern Indians, 
the president, supported by Congress, yielded it altogether, 
upon the ground that the Cherokee constitution was the 
erection of a new state within the limits of Georgia and 
Alabama. It would have been well had Georgia contented 
herself with the Indians thus surrendered to her. But she 
must needs interfere with the whites, the very missionaries 



TAKIFF COMPROMISE. 397 

of the Indian territory, and imprison tliem in lier peniten- 
tiary for not taking the oath of ^allegiance which she de- 
manded, (1831.) Their case was carried before the United 
States Supreme Court, which decided against the course of 
Georgia with regard to both missionaries and Indians, 
(1832.) But the Iifdians obtained no redress ; nor did the 
missionaries,, until they abandoned their proceedings against 
the sovereign state, (1833.) 

•fariff More serious points in relation to the question 

riucs- between the states and the general government had 
arisen. The first message of President Jackson 
(December, 1820) suggested a modification of the tariff 
adopted the year before. It was another concession, on his 
part, to the state claims. But it was not made without 
cause. The system of protection, once opposed and favored 
by the north and by the south together, had come to be a 
favorite of the north, and an object of opposition to the 
south. Emigration from the older to the newer states, 
followed by a depreciation in the value of the lands long 
settled, had greatly affected southern interests, much more 
so than the tarifi", to which every reverse was apt to be 
ascribed. But the apparent cause was just as effectual i!i 
kindling excitement as if it had been the real one. The 
south and the north were set against each other ; it was a 
fresh strife of sections, full of peril to the nation. Presi- 
dent Jackson adverted to it in recommending a considera- 
tion of the tariff. At once the questions of the former 
administration revived. But the result for the present, so 
far as the tariff was concerned, consisted in a few unimpor- 
tant modifications, (May, 1830.) 

At the same time, a resolution before the Senate 
resoiu- was indefinitely postponed, after having elicited a 
tion: remarkable debate upon the points at issue before 

Debate. ^ ^ 

the country. It had been brought forward by Sen- 
34 



398 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

ator Foot, oi Connecticut, just at tlie close of the previous 
year, (December 29, 1829,) with a view to some arrange- 
ment concerning the sale of the public lands. But the 
public lands were soon lost sight of in a discussion involv- 
ing the relative powers of the states and the national gov- 
ernment. Robert Y. Ilayne, a senator from South Carolina, 
took the ground that a state possessed the right of nullify- 
ing any act of Congress which it should consider unconsti- 
tutional, inasmuch as the government, whereof Congress 
was a part, resulted from a compact amongst the states. 
The opposite theory, that the government was established 
by the people of the United States as a whole, and not by 
the states as separate members, was taken chiefly by Daniel 
Webster, some years before a representative of his native 
New Hampshire, at present a senator from his adopted 
Massachusetts. The great speech of Webster (January 
26-27, 1830) was, without contradiction, the ablest plea 
that had ever been made for the national character, as well 
as the national government. It decided the fact, so far as 
argument in the Senate chamber could do, that the general 
government, in its proper functions, is independent of all 
local institutions. As a necessary consequence, the claim 
of a state to nullify an act of Congress fell to the ground. 
The same doctrine was advocated by Madison, first amongst 
the survivors of those who had framed the Constitution, 
(August.) " I trust," said Webster, near the beginning of 
the following year, " the crisis has in some measure passed 
l)y." It was not the last time, however, that he had to 
raise his powerful voice in the defence of the Constitution. 
Revision A year or more elapsed before the subject of the 
of tariff, tariff was called up again. It was then decided by 
Congress and the president to revise the provisions against 
which the south was still contending. Without abandoning 
the protective system, which, on the contrary, was distinctly 



TARIFF COMPROMISE. 399 

maintained, the duties upon many of the protected articles 
were reduced, in order to salisly the opponents of protec 
tion, (July, 1832.) 

Far from diverting the storm, the action upon the 
cation tariff did but hasten its approach. The South 
ill South Carohna members of Congress addressed their con- 

Carolina. ... 

stituents in this wise : " After expressing their 
solemn and deliberate conviction that the protecting system 
must now be regarded as the settled policy of the country, 
and tliat all hope of relief from Congress is irrecoverably 
gone, they leave it with you, the sovereign power of the 
state, to determine whether the rights and liberties which 
you received as a precious inheritance from an illustrious 
ancestry shall be tamely surrendered without a struggle, or 
transmitted undiminished to your posterity." The tempest 
that ensued was prodigious, considering the hmited sphere 
through which it had to sweep. The legislature of South 
Carolina summoned a convention of the state, which met at 
Columbia, under the presidency of Governor HamiUon, 
(November 19.) A few days suf^ced to pass an' ordinance 
declaring " that the several acts, and parts of acts, purport- 
ing to be laws for the imposing of duties on importation . . . 
are unauthorized by the Constitution of the United States, 
and violate the true intent and meaning thereof, and are 
null and void, and no law, nor binding ujion the State of 
South Carolina, its officers and citizens ; . . . and that 
it shall be the duty of the legislature to adopt such measures 
and pass such acts as may be necessary to give full effect 
to this ordinance, and to prevent the enforcement and arrest 
the operation of the said acts, and parts of acts, of the 
Congress of the United States within the hniits of the 
State," (November 24.) 

In all this there was nothins; new to the nation. 

Secession. . 

From the time when Kentucky and Virginia began 



400 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

upon a similar course, from the time when Massachusetts 
and Connecticut continued it, doAvn to the more recent acts 
of Georgia and of South Carohna herself, nullification, in 
nominal if not in actual existence, had stalked throughout 
the land. A state that felt itself aggrieved by the general 
government was very apt to take to resolutions, often to 
positive statutes, against the laws or the measures of the 
Union. But South Carolina went further than any of her 
predecessors. " We, the people of South Carolina," con- 
cluded the ordinance of the convention, " do further declare 
that we will not submit to the application of force, on the 
part of the federal government, to reduce this state to 
obedience, but that we Avill consider the passage by Con- 
gi-ess of any act . . . to enforce the acts hereby de- 
clared to be null and void, otherwise than through the civil 
tribunals of the country, as inconsistent with the longer 
continuance of South Carolina in the Union ; and that the 
people of this state . . . will forthwith proceed to 
organize a separate government." This was something 
more than, nullification ; k was secession. 
Pvcsoiu- It has been very common to exclaim against the 
s^mtif conduct of South Carolina. But with the principles 
Carolina, wliicli slic profcsscd. Supporting the claims of the 
state to be a sovereign member of a national confederacy, 
it is difficult to see how she could have acted otherwise. If 
we would censure any thing, it must be the principles»which 
led to nullification and to secession, rather than these, the 
mere and the inevitable results. In itself, as an instance 
of resolution against what was deemed injustice and oppres- 
sion, the attitude of South Carolina is no object of indigna- 
tion. On the contrary, there is something thrilling in the 
aspect of a people perilling their all to sustain their rights, 
even though they were mistaken as to what their rights 
really were " The die has been at last cast," the governor 



TARIFF COMPROMISE. 401 

informed the legislature, assembled a day or two after the 
adoption of the ordinance by the convention, " and South 
Carolina has at length appealed to her ulterior sovereignty 
as a member of this confederacy. . . . That it brings 
up a juncture of deep and momentous interest, is neither to 
be concealed nor denied." The legislature unhesitatingly 
responded to the convention in a series of acts prohibiting 
the collection of duties, and providing for the employment 
of volunteers, or, if need were, of the entire militia, in the 
defence of the state.* 

If the state was resolute, the general government 
tion*^of "^^'^^ ^^^ ^^^^ ^^' "^^^^ president was in his element, 
govern- A crisis wliicli he was eminently adapted to meet 
had arrived. It called forth all his independence, 
all his nationality. Other men — more than one of his pred- 
ecessors — would have doubted the course to be pursued ; 
they would have staid to inquire into the powers of the 
Constitution, or to count the resources of the government ; 
nay, had they been consistent, they would have inclined 
to the support, rather than to the overthrow, of the South 
Carolina doctrine. Jackson did not waver an instant. He 
•took his own counsel, as he was wont to do, and declared 
for the nation against the state ; then ordered troops and a 
national vessel to the support of the government officers in 
South Carolina. " No act of violent opposition to the laws 
has yet been committed, " — thus the president declared in 
a proclamation ; " but such a state of things is hourly appre- 
hended ; and it is the intent of this instrument to proclaim 
not only that the duty imposed on me by the Constitution, 
to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, shall be 
])erformed, . . . but to warn the citizens of South Car- 
olina . . . that the course they are urged to pursue is 
one of ruin and disgrace to tlie very state whose right they 
affect to support," (December.) The appeal to the South 
34* 



402 PART ly. 1797-1850. 

• 
Carolinians was the more forcible in coming from* one of 
themselves, as it were ; Jackson being a native of their 
state. Addressing Congress in an elaborate message, (Jan- 
uary 16, 1833,) the president argued down both nullifica- 
tion and secession, maintaining that " the result of each is 
the same ; since a state in which, by a usurpation of power, 
the constitutional authority of the federal government is 
openly defied and set aside, wants only the form to be inde- 
pendent of the Union." He then proceeded to recount the 
measures which he had taken, and to propose those which 
he considered it necessary for Congress to take. Congress 
responded, after some delay, by an enforcing act, the pri- 
mary object of which was to secure the collection of the 
customs in the South Carolina ports. Thus united stood 
the government in sustaining itself against the state by 
which it was defied. 

^ , Nor did it stand alone. One after another, the 

tion of states, by legislative or by individual proceedings, 

came out in support of the national principle. The 
principle of state sovereignty, that might have found sup- 
port but for the extremity to which it had been pushed, 
seemed to be abandoned. South Carolina was left to her- 
self, even by her neighbors, usually prone to take the same 
side. Only Virginia came forAvard, appealing to the gov- 
ernment as well as to South Carolina to be done with strife. 
As if to show her sympathy for the cause of the state, Vir- 
ginia appointed a commissioner to convey her sentiments to 
the people of South Carolina. Otherwise the states ranged 
themselves distinctly, though not all actively, on the side of 
the nation. 

^^^..^. But on one point there was a decided reservation 

conipro- with many of the states. The tariff was openly 

condemned by North Carolina, Alabama, and 
Georgia ; the last state proposing a southern convention, to 



TARIFF COMPROMISE. 403 

take some measures of resistance to the continuance of a 
system so unconstitutional. It became plainer and plainer, 
that if South Carolina was to be brought to terms by any 
other way than by force, or if her sister states of the south 
were to be kept from joining her sooner or later, it must be 
by some modification of the tariff. A bill was brought for- 
ward in the House, but without any immediate result. 
Henry Clay took the matter up in the Senate. He had 
distinguished himself as the advocate of the Missouri Com- 
promise. He was the author, in consultation with others, 
of the tariff compromise. This proposed that the duties on 
all imports exceeding twenty per cent, should be reduced 
to that rate by successive diminutions through the next ten 
years, (till June 30, 1842.) " I wish," said Clay, "to see 
the tariff separt^ted from the politics of the country, that 
business men may go to work in security, with some pros- 
pect of stability in our laws." Had there been no other 
motive for liis course, this would have been enough to 
stamp it with wisdom. Others felt as he did. Unlike the 
Missouri question, the tariff question was disposed of with- 
out protracted struggles. The advocates of protection 
wrangled against the compromise, as a matter of course ; 
but the measure was supported by very general approval, 
not excepting the representatives of South Carolina, at the 
head of whom was Calhoun, lately surrendering the vice 
presidency in order to represent his state in the Senate. In 
fact, the impossibility of restoring peace by any other, means 
was palpable. The compromise became a law, (March 2,) 
and South Carohna returned to her allegiance. "The 
lightning," as one of Clay's correspondents wrote to him, 
was " drawn out from the clouds which were lowering over 
the country." 

Like all other compromises, the tariff compro- 
mise did not brino; about an absolute decision of the 



404 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

points of controversy. To tlie opponents of protection it 
abated the amount of protection. To the champions of the 
protective system it secured the right of laying duties, but 
at the same time decided against the expediency, if not the 
right, of excessive duties. In other words, perhaps it may 
be said that the compromise gave up prohibition, but re- 
tained protection. It was not enough to settle the question 
in detail ; yet it was enough to settle the question on broad 
prhiciples. 

As for the subject that lay behind the tariff, not 
great couccalcd, but ovcrtoppiug it by an immensity of 
que& ion. jjgjgi-^^^ ^j-^-g^ ^QQ^ ^yg^g decided in the same general 

way. The subordination of the state to the nation was not 
defined. But it was established oh principles which no 
nullification could disturb, and no secession break asunder, 
except in national ruin. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Financial Disorders. 

National Few matters are more important to a nation — 
finance, especially to a money -making nation — than its 
finance. This being in a sound condition, the course of 
government and of the people is so flxr smoothed and se- 
cured. But if it is disturbed, either by those in authority 
or by those engaged in speculations of their own, the whole 
coimtry suffers. Time and again had these things been 
proved in the United States ; a fresh and a fearful proof 
was soon to occur. 
,^ , ^ The administration of Jackson had but iust be- 

Veto of ^ 

Unifed gun, (1829,) whcn an attempt was made to interfere 
Biua? y>"ith the appointments in the United States Bank. 
charter. The resistance of the bank js supposed to have ex- 
cited the displeasure of the president, who, at all events, 
took occasion in his first message to throw out suggestions 
against the renewal of the bank charter, although this was 
not to expire fcu' six or seven years to come. Congress, 
instead of complying with the presidential recommendation, 
showed a docided determination to sustain the bank. The 
next Congress voted to renew the charter, but the president 
immediately interposed with a veto, (July, 1832.) Amidst 
many sound objections on his part was mingled much that 
must be set down as prejudice, not to say extravagance ; he 
even went so far as to suppose the bank to be dangerous 
" to our liberty and independence." 

(405) 



406 ' PART IV. 1797-1850. 

Removal ^*^^ coiitent with opposing the rechartering of 
ofdepos- tlie bank, the president determined to hihiible it 

its 

before its charter expired. To this, it must be con- 
fessed, he was in some degree goaded by the unsparing bit- 
terness with which his veto had been assailed. On the 
other hand, the triumphant reelection of Jackson to the 
presidency, with his right hand man, Martin Van Buren, 
for vice president, assured him of a support which would 
not fail him in any measures he might pursue. In his next 
message, (December, 1832,) he recommended the removal 
of the treasury deposits from the custody of the bank, but 
without obtaining the cooperation of Congress. , Things 
went on as they were until the early autumn of the follow- 
ing year, when (Sei^tember, 1833) the president announced 
to his cabinet his resolution to remove the deposits on his 
own responsibility, assigning for his principal reasons the 
electioneering procedures against his administration, of 
which the bank was suspected, and the necessity of provid- 
ing for some new method of managing the public revenue 
before the expiration of the charter incapacitated the bank 
from serving as it had hitherto done. The terms of the 
<3harter provided that die power of recalling the deposits 
lay with the secretary of the treasury, subject to the condi- 
tion of acquainting Congress with the proceeding — a con- 
dition which the party of the bank interpreted as subjecting 
the question of removal to the approval «r disapproval of 
the legislature. The administration and its supporters, on 
the other hand, contended that the power of ♦he secretary 
in the matter did not depend upon the will of Congress, but 
rested with himself, of course under the directions of the 
president. This, however, did not smooth the way; for 
the secretary then in office, William J. Duane, declined to 
have any thing to do with the removal. Two days after- 
wards, he was displaced to make room for Roger B. Taney, 



FINANCIAL jDISORDERS. 407 

« 

then attorney general, and subsequently cMef justice of the 
United States. The new secretary, not sharing the scruples 
of his predecessor, issued the proper order for the removal 
-of the deposits at the time indicated by the president, (Oc- 
tober 1.) 

Of the agitation attending these events it is diffi- 
giaion. ^^j^ to conceive at this distance of time. If we 
account for the suspicions of the president against the bank, 
there still remain the accusations from the bank and from 
its friends against the president to be explained. Had 
Jackson declared himself the lord and master of the United 
States, there could scarcely have been a greater uproar. It 
vented itself in meetings and in legislative bodies, as usual. 
It broke forth in Congress, especially in the Senate, where, 
at the instigation of Henry Clay, the recent competitor of 
Jackson for the presidency, a resolve was adopted, " That 
the president, in the late executive proceeding in relation to 
the public revenue, has assumed upon himself authority and 
power not conferred by the Constitution and laws, but in 
derogation of both," (March, 1834.) The same day Daniel 
Webster remarked, " If this experiment of the executive 
government is sutfered to go on, it will bring us to conse- 
quences nearly touching the powers and continued action 
of this government. • . . . Let all who mean to die as 
they live, citizens of a free country, stand together for the 
supremacy of the laws." Against the sentence of the Sen- 
ate, passed upon him without a hearing, the president issued 
a protest, as a " substitute for that defence which," said he, 
" I have not been allowed to present in the ordinary form," 
(April.) So one extreme led to another, until, near three 
years later, it was made a party measure to expunge from 
the records of the Senate the resolution of censure, (Jan- 
uary, 1837.) 

As for the bank itself, it " waged war," said the president 



408 PAKT IV. 1797-1850. 

Money afterwards, " upon the people, in order to compel 
troubles, them to submit to its demands." It certainly ap- 
peared to do so ; but the course taken by it was quite as 
much a defensive as an offensive one. The loss of the de- 
posits involved a contraction of loans. These contractions 
affected other banks, which were obliged to curtail their 
own operations, until credit sank, capitalists failed, and 
laborers ceased to be employed. All this increased the 
excitement, at first depending upon party statements and 
constitutional theories. The sufferers turned against both 
sides ; a part against the bank, which was represented as a 
monstrous despotism, a part against the president, who was 
represented as an equally monstrous despot. We seem to 
read of a nation gone wild, in reading of these things as 
they are told by their contemporaries. 
Surplus While individuals were suffering, the government 
revenue, ^^s in a State of rcplction. Not only was the pub- 
lic debt entirely paid off, (1835,) but a large balance was 
left in the banks to which the public moneys had been 
transferred from the United States Bank. 'It was resolved 
by the administration to deposit, as the phrase went, all but 
a reserve of five milhons with the states, to be used accord- 
ing to then' different circumstances, (1836.) A sum of 
twenty-eight millions was thus distributed, the states gener- 
ally understanding that the share which each received was 
its own, not merely to be employed, but to be retained, 
(1837.) Nothing was ever recalled by the government, 
great as its embarrassments soon became. 
Abolition- Into the old fissure between the north and the 
^^^- south a new wedge was driven during the present 
period. This was abolitionism, so called from its demands 
that slavery should be immediately abolished in the District 
of Columbia and the national territories, by Congress, and 



FINANCIAL DISORDERS. 409 

in the slaveliokling states by the state governments, or the 
slaveholders themselves. To effect their purposes, the 
'abolitionists, all northerners, organized themselves in asso- 
ciations, local and general, into which persons of both sexes 
and of every age were gathered, while addresses and pub- 
lications of various sorts were<«spread in all directions, north 
and south, (1831-5.) Whatever their motives, the cham- 
pions of abolition often pursued a vituperative and exas- 
perating course, rousing the north as well as the south, and 
accounting for, though never excusing, the violent and even 
sanguinary proceedings of their opponents, M-^ho broke open 
the sou-thern post offices, in search of anti-slavery papers, 
and attacked the gathering and the printing places of the 
abolitionists in the north, (1834-5.) The president took 
tlie ground that the transmission of abolition documents to 
the south was calculated to stir up a servile war ; and so 
imbittered did Congress become, as to refuse to receive 
memorials upon the subject of slavery, a subject often 
before provocative of angry passages, but never until now 
considered too delicate to be approached, (1836.) The 
cause of emancipation was thrown back still farther by the 
hostility excited against it, as well as against its advocates, 
throughout the Southern States. Abolitionism had resulted 
in conservatism, and that of a stamp as yet unknown to the 
most conservative. 

Indian Relations with the Indians were frequently dis- 
wars. turbed. The process of removing them to the west 
of the Mississippi continued a cause of disorder and of 
strife. A war with the Sacs and Foxes, under Black 
Hawk, broke out on the north-west frontier, but was soon 
brought to an end by a vigorous campaign on the part of 
the United States troops and the militia, under Generals 
35 



410 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

Scott and Atkinson, (1832.) Another war arose with the 
Seminoles, under their chief Osceohx, in Florida. It was 
attended by serious losses from the beginning, (1835.) On 
the junction of the Creeks with the Seminoles, affairs grew 
still worse, the war extending into Georgia and Alabama, 
(183G.) The Creeks were subdued under the directions of 
General Jessup ; but the Seminoles continued in arms 
amidst the thickets of Florida for many years. 

, , Occasional disturbances occurred in foreim rela- 

Distnrbod ^ _ ... 

forei,u;n tious, especially respecting the indemnities still due 
on account of spoliations of American commerce. 
These were gradually arranged; Denmark (1800) and 
Naples (1834) meeting the claims of long standing against 
them ; the more recent demands against Portugal and 
Spain being also satisfied, though not by immediate pay- 
ments, (1832, 1834.) 

The relations witli France were more precarious. 

Especially ^ 

with After twenty or thirty years' unavailing negotiation 
with the governments of Napoleon and his Bourbon 
successors, a treaty was concluded with the government of 
Louis Philippe, acknowledging the American claims to the 
amount of about five million dollars, (July, 1831.) Three 
years afterwards, the French Chambers rejected the bill for 
the execution of the treaty, (1834.) Meantime the United 
States government had drawn a draft for the amount of the 
first instalment proposed to be paid by France, but only to 
have the draft protested. Thus doubly aggrieved, the ad- 
ministration proposed to Congress the authorization of 
reprisals upon French property, in case immediate provision 
for the fulfilment of the treaty should not be made by the 
French Chambers, (December, 1834.) The mere proposal, 
though unsupported by any action of Congress, was received 
as an affront in France ; the French minister at Washinj^- 



FINANCIAL DISOIIDERS. 411 

Ion being recalled, and the American minister at Paris 
being tendered his passports. The Chambers, however, 
voted the appropriations required by the treaty, subject to 
the condition that the president's proposals to Congress 
should be satisfactorily explained, (1835.) "Does France," 
asked the president, in a special message on the subject, 
(January, 183G,) " desire only a declaration that we had no 
intention to obtain our rights by an address to her fears 
rather than her justice? She has already had it. . . . 
Docs France want a degrading, servile repetition, in terms 
wliich she shall dictate, and which will involve an acknowl- 
edgment of her assumed right to interfere in our domestic 
councils ? She will never obtain it." The alternative sug- 
gested to Congress was " prohibiting the introduction of 
French products and the entry of French vessels," or " the 
interdiction of all commercial intercourse." At this crisis 
Great Britain offered her mediation. It was accepted ; 
but, without waiting for its exercise, the French government 
resolved to execute the treaty. The news soon came that 
the five millions were paid, (May, 1836.) 

The nation was united in supporting; the adminis- 
tration against France and the stranger generally. 
But on the score of domestic relations there were wide 
divisions. Party spirit, dying out under Monroe, and after- 
wards reviving with respect to men rather than to princi- 
ples, was soon excited concerning both. Jackson had 
drawn around him the most devoted adherents, devoted at 
once to him and to his system. On the other hand, the 
character of the administration and of its chief were most 
earnestly opposed by a party formed of those who had once 
ibllowed after the president, as v,^ell as of those who had 
a]wa3^s been in opposition. This, after various changes of 
name, became the whig party ; the supporters of the iidmin- 
istration forming the democratic party. 



412 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

Commer- The financial disorders of tlie time came to a 
ciai crisis, -j^^^^ directly after Margin Van Buren succeeded liis 
chief in the presidency, (March, 1837,) when the banks, 
first of New York, and then of other cities, suspended specie 
l)ayments, (May.) A committee from New York, ap- 
pointed to urge the president to suspend the requirement 
of payments in specie to the treasury, and to call an extra 
session of Congress, stated in their address " that the value 
of their real estate [in New York alone] had, within the 
last six months, depreciated more than forty millions of 
dollars ; that within the preceding two months there had 
been more than two hundred and fifty failures of houses 
engaged in extensive business ; that within the same period 
a decline of twenty millions had occurred in their local 
stocks ; . . . that the immense amount of merchan- 
dise in their warehouses had fiillen in value at least thirty 
per cent. ; that within a few weeks not less than twenty 
tliousand individuals, depending upon their daily labor 
for their daily bread, had been discharged by their em- 
ployers." To this sad statement, and to otiier representa- 
tions of similar character, the president, after some hesita- 
tion, ]-esponded by convening Congress on the first Monday 
in September. lie then sent in a message, explaining the 
general distress on grounds very different from those taken 
by most of the distressed. He spoke of the increase of 
banking capital, of bank notes and bank discounts, within 
the last year or two, showing its enormous extent.* " The 
consequences of this redundancy of credit," pursued the 



* In 1834 the capital was about $'200,000,000 ; in January, 1836, about 
$2-30,000,000. In 1834, bank notes in circulation were about $'95,000,000; 
in 1836, about^ $140,000,000. In 1834, bank loans were about $325,- 
000,000 ; in 1830, about $400,000,000. Another estimate shoAvs that the 
bank notes in circuLition in January, 1837, exceeded those of 1830 by 
eighty-eight millions ! 



FINANCIAL DISORDERS. 413 

president, " and of the spirit of reckless speculation engen- 
dered by it, were a foreign debt contracted by our citizens, 
estimated in March last at more than thirty millions of dol- 
lars; . . . the investment of thirty-nine and a half 
millions in unproductive public lands, in the years 1835 and 
1836, while in the preceding year the sales amounted to 
only four and a half millions; . . . the diversion to 
other pursuits of much of the labor that should have been 
applied to agriculture, thereby contributing to the expendi- 
ture of large sums in the importation of grain from Europe, 
. . . in the first two quarters of the present year in- 
creased to more than two millions; and finally, without 
enumerating other injurious results, the rapid growth among 
all classes, and especially in our great commercial cities, of 
luxurious habits, founded too often on merely fancied 
wealth, and detrimental alike to the industry, the resources, 
and the morals of the people." 

independ- '^^^^ president expressly disclaimed any sugges- 
enttreas- tious for relieving the embarrassments that had 
"'^' thus arisen. " Such measures," he remarked, " are 
not within the constitutional province of the general govern- 
ment." But he advocated the adoption of some system to 
relieve the government, which, since the suspension of 
specie payment by the banks, had had serious difficulties of 
its own. Li the first place, the banks failed to restore 
the deposits of the treasury, and, in the second place, indi- 
viduals were unable, for want of specie, if not for want of 
any funds whatsoever, to pay their debts to the nation. A 
temporary reUef, both to the treasury and to its debtors, 
was proposed in the issue of treasury notes. But the great 
thing with the president was to make some lasting provision 
against the recurrence of similar deficiencies in the govern- 
ment revenues. He therefore proposed the organization of 
an independent treasury, — its opponents called it a sub- 
35* 



414 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

treasury, — in order to do away with banks, both national 
and state, as keepers of the pubUc moneys, and substituting 
a number of offices in tlie principal cities, under the control 
of the administration. That this scheme, as the president 
afterwards remarked, "should have given rise to great 
diversity of opinion, cannot be a subject of surprise. After 
the collection and custody of the public moneys had been 
for so many years connected with and made subsidiary to 
the advancement of private interests, a return to the simple 
and self-denying ordinances of the Constitution could not 
but be difficult." Herein, however, the opposition diffi:ired 
from the chief magistrate. "The project," said Clay, in the 
Senate, " is neither desirable nor practicable, nor within the 
constitutional power of the general government, nor just ; it 
is contrary to the habits of the people, and dangerous to 
their liberties." The majority was on this side ; nor did 
the independent treasury find favor enough with Congress 
to be established until nearly three years after its proposal, 
(July, 1840.) It was repealed the very next year, (Au- 
gust, 1841,) but reestablished five years later, (1846.) 
^ , AVhile the national finances were slowly recover- 

Insolven- •' 

cy of ing themselves, the state finances, with some excep- 
tions, appeared to be on the brink of ruin. What- 
ever might be the cause, — whether the excess of specula- 
tion, as the administration argued, or the administration 
system itself, as the opposition maintained, — certain it is 
that the states had run a race of extravagance and hazard 
unparalleled in our history. In the two years preceding 
the commercial crisis, the issue of state stocks — that is, the 
amount of money borrowed by the states — was nearly one 
hundred millicfhs of dollars. The inevitable consequences 
followed. While such as had any thing to support their 
credit were deeply bowed, those that had nothing — those 
that had borrowed not so much to develop their resources 



FINANCIAL DISORDERS. 415 

as to supply the want of resources — fell, collapsed and 
shattered. Some states — Maryland, (January, 1842,) and 
Pennsylvania, (August, 1842) — paid the interest on their 
debts only by certificates, and by those only partially. 
Others — Indiana, (July, 1841,) Arkansas, (July, 1841,) 
and Illinois, (January, 1842) — made no payment at all. 
Two — Michigan, (January, 1842,) and Louisiana, (Decem- 
ber, 1842) — ceased not merely to pay, but in part to ac- 
knowledge their dues, alleging that the frauds or failures of 
their agents, from which they had unquestionably suffered, 
released them from at least a portion of their obhgations. 

But in this, as in every other respect, in extent 

Eepiulia- ... ^ 

tioii iu as well as m priority of insolvency, Mississippi took 
^^^^^^" the lead. As early as January, 1841, Governor 
McNutt suggested to the legislature the " repudiat- 
ing the sale of five millions of the bonds of the year 1838, 
on account of fraud and illegality." These bonds had been 
issued in support of the Union Bank, which began to show 
very decided signs of instability the year preceding the 
governor's suggestion. The fraud that was so great as to 
require the repudiation of the bonds, consisted chiefly in 
the fact that they had been sold on credit, or, as the gov- 
ernor insisted, below par, against a sale of which sort there 
was a particular reservation in the charter of the bank. 
Even if the sale was a fraudulent one, which many in as 
well as out of Mississippi denied, the penalty attached liot 
to the bondholders, who had paid their money in good faith 
that it would be returned to them, but to the bank commis- 
sioners by whom the bonds were sold, or to the bank itself, 
by which the commissioners had been appointed. Not thus 
reasoned Governor McNutt, who, to the remonstrance of a 
foreign house holding a large portion of the bonds, replied, 
" This state will never pay the five millions of dollars of 
state bonds issued in June, 1838, or any portion of the 



416 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

interest due, or to become due tliereon," (July, 1841.) This 
was written in spite of tlie resolutions of the Mississijjpi 
legislature to stand by their bonds, the resolutions having 
been passed some months before. But in the interval, a 
clmnge had taken place in the opinion of the state, partly 
from motives of expedienc}^, but partly, also, from constitu- 
tional scruples, caused by a provision in the constitution 
that the assent of two successive legislatures, with public 
notice intervening, was necessary to the use of the state 
credit — a provision not complied within the issue of the 
bonds in question. At all events, the next session of the 
legislature proved that the governor was supported in his 
position. Mississippi deliberately repudiated her debts, 
(1842.) Her example was imitated at the same time by 
the neighboring territory of Florida. 

Niitionai Eight states and a territory were thus sunk into 
ci^jtiit. bankruptcy, some of them into what was worse than 
bankru})tcy. It v/as not, of course, without dishonor or 
without injury to the Union of which they Avere members. 
Wlien a national loan Avas attempted to be effected abroad, 
not a bidder could be found for it, or for any paVt of it, in 
all Europe, (1842.) This was but a trifle, however, amid 
the storm of reproach that swelled against the United States. 
" I do not wonder," wrote the Boston clergyman William 
Ellery Channing, " that Europe raises a cry of indignation 
against this country ; I wish it could come to us in thun- 
der.'* Nor did it seem undeserved by the nation, as a 
whole, when Florida, still repudiating its debt as a territory, 

' was admitted as a state, (1845.) Against this sign of 

insensibility on the part of the nation, there were happily 
to be set some proofs of returning honor on the part of the 

^ states, Pennsylvania taking the lead in wiping away her 

" debts and her stains, (1845.) 



CHAPTER VII. 

Annexation of Texas. 

One of the later CQjiimimications of President 
iiitioii of Jackson to Congress had been upon the subject of 
Texas and its independence. He was decided in 
recommending caution, for reasons which will presently 
appear, (December, 183G.) But Congress declaring its 
recognition of the new state, Jackson assented in the last 
moments of his administration. 

g^j.^j^ A quarter of a century before, parties from the 

meat of United States began to cross over to join in the 
e. ]^j[^,^j^^j^ struggle against Spain, (1813.) It was 
then uncertain whether Texas formed a part of Mexico or 
of Louisiana, the boundary being undetermined until the 
time of the treaty concerning Florida, (1819-21.) At that 
time, Texas was distinctly abandoned to Spain, from whose 
possession it immediately passed to that of her revolted 
province of Mexico. Soon after, on Mexican invitation, a 
number of colonists from the United States, under the lead 
of Stephen F. Austin, of Missouri, undertook to settle the 
still unoccupied territory, (1821.) It was no* expedition to 
plunder or to destroy, but what it professed to be — to 
colonize. Notwithstanding the difficulties of the enterprise 
itself, as well as those created by the continual changes in 
tlie Mexican government, it prospered to such a degree, 
that several thousand settlers were gathered in during the 
ten years ensuing. 

(417) 



418 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

p.evoiu- Strong in their numbers, stronger still in their, 
tion. energies, the Texans aspired to a more definite 
organization than they possessed. Without any purpose, at 
least professed, of revolution, they formed a constitution, 
and sent Austin to ask the admission of Texas, as a sepa- 
rate state, into the Mexican republic, (1833.) This was 
denied, and Austin thrown into prison. But no outbreak 
followed for more than two years. Then the Mexican gov- 
ernment, resolving to reduce the Texans to entire submis- 
sion, despatched a force to arrest the officers under the state 
constitution, and to disarm the people. The Texan Lexing- 
ton was Gonzales, where the first resistance was made, 
(September 28, 1835.) The Texan Philadelphia was a 
place called Washington, where a convention declared the 
independence of the state, (March 2, 1836,) and adopted a 
constitution, (March 17.) The Texan Saratoga and York- 
town, two in one, was on the shores of the San Jacinto, 
where General Houston, commander-in*chief of the insur- 
gents, gained a decisive victory over the Mexican president, 
Santa Anna, (April 21.) Six months afterwards, Houston 
was chosen president of the republic of Texas, (October.) 
^ . In his inaugural speech, he expressed the desire 

Project . . 

of annex- of tlic pcoplc to join the United States. Nothing 
ation. ^.Q^l(] ]jQ more natural. With few exceptions, they 
were emigrants from the land to which they wished to be 
reunited. It was but natural, for the same reason, that a 
large number of those whom they had left behind them 
should wish fheir return, partly from old associations, and 
partly from the new ones connected with their revolution. 
Tlien tliere were other motives to produce the same inclina- 
^ tion. The cession of the Louisiana claims to Texas in the 

^ Florida, treaty had been vehemently opposed by many who 

^ would tlierefore be earnest to recover the territory then sur- 

rendered. Again and again was the effort made by the 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. •419 

United States to get back from Mexico wliat had been ceded 
to Spain, (1825-35.) Witli a very considerable party 
in the south, there was an additional incentive to regain 
Texas, in the congeniality of its climate, its resources, and 
its customs, especially the establishment of slavery. But 
the very fact that slavery existed in Texas was a strong 
reason with another considerable party in the north to 
oppose its admission to the Union. The same party, more- 
over, would have little desire to recover the Texan territory, 
even admitting that it had ever been surrendered, as well 
as little sympathy with the character or the history of the 
Texans, who, in tlieir eyes, seemed a wild and lawless set, 
unfit to share in the established institutions of the United 
States. To these objections must be added one, confined to 
no single portion of the Union, but very generally enter- 
tained, on account of the claim of Mexico to the Texan 
territory. Upon this point, the message of President Jack- 
son, alluded to at the beginning of the chapter, dwelt with, 
emphasis. He stated plainly that the acknowledgment of 
Texan independence was the acknowledgment of the Texan 
title to the territory, in contradiction to the Mexican asser- 
tion of sovereignty. It was the more delicate a question on 
account of the differences existing between the governments 
of Mexico and of the United States. The former com- 
plained of continued invasions of her territory, in violation 
of all amity and neutrality. Tlie latter demanded redress 
for spoliations of property and injuries to persons from the 
time that Mexico became independent. Notwithstanding 
these various complications, the independence of Texas was 
recognized by the United States, as has been mentioned, 
leaving the project of annexation to the future. 

When Texas, soon after the opening of Van 
Buren's administration, presented herself for admis- 
sion to tlie Union, her Qffera were cjeclinedj and then 



Texas 
I'cfuse 
ailmis- 



42(f PART IV. 1797-18.50. 

.vithdrawn, (1837.) The next year, William C. Preston, 
a senator of South Carolina, brought forward resolu- 
tions in favor of the proposed annexation ; but they were 

rejected. 

The attention of the country was turned in an- 
JJiJf "' other direction. An insurrection in Canada was 
Great immediately supported by American parties, one 
^''^'"'' of whom, in company with some Canadian refugees, 
after pillaging the New York arsenals, seized upon Navy 
Island, a British possession in the Niagara River. The 
steamer Caroline, engaged in bringing over men, arms, and 
stores to the island, was destroyed, though at the tmie on 
the American shore, by a British detachment, (December, 
- 1837.) The deed was instantly avowed by the mnnster of 
Great- Britain at Washington as an act of self-defence on 
the British side. Three years afterwards, (November, 
1840,) one Alexander M'Leod, sheriff of Niagara, m Can- 
ada, and as such a participator in the destruction of the 
Carohne, was arrested in New York on the charge of mur- 
der, an American having lost his life when the steamer 
was destroyed. The British government demanded his 
release, in doing which they were sustained by the United 
States administration, on the ground that M'Leod was but 
an agent or soldier of Great Britain. But the authorities 
of n'cw York held fast to their prisoner, and brought him 
to trial. Had harm come to him, his government stood 
pledged to declare war ; but he was acquitted for want of 
proof, (1841.) Congress subsequently passed an act requir- 
ing that similar cases should be tried only before United 
Stites courts. The release of M'Leod did not settle the 
affair of the Caroline ; this still remained. There were, or 
there had been, other dithculties upon the Maine frontier, 
where the boundary line had never yet been run. Col- 
lisions took place, and others, between the Maine militia 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 421 

and the British troops, had been but just prevented, (1839.) 
Nor was this all. Far a*vay, upon the African coast, 
British cruisers were ' claiming a right to visit American 
vessels, in carrying out the provisions for the suppression 
of the slave trade. The right w^as assej^ted in a quintuple 
treaty, to which Great Britain, France, Austria, Prussia, 
and Russia were parties, (October, 1841 ;) but the United 
States denied it altogether. 

Treat IMcanwhile William rlenry Harrison, the choice 

of Wasii- of the whig party, had succeeded to the presidency, 
ug on. (^]\j,^j.(.1j^ 1841.) On his death, a month after, John 
Tyler, vice president, became president. His secretary of 
state, Daniel Webster, proposed to the British minister at 
Washington to take up the question of the north-eastern 
boundary. The offer led to the appointment by the British 
government of a special envoy in the person of Lord Ash- 
burton, to wliom was committed the negotiation upon the 
boundary, and upon various other points of controversy. 
Soon after his arrival in Washington, (April, 1842,) con- 
ferences were opened between him and the American secre- 
tary ; commissioners from Maine and Massachusetts being 
consulted upon all subjects pertaining to the boundary. The 
treaty of Washington, ratified by the Senate four months 
afterwards, (August 20,) embraced almost every subject of 
dissension with Great Britain. It settled the north-eastern 
boundary ; it put dowai the claim to a right of visit, and in 
such a way as to lead to the denial of the claim by Euro- 
pean powers who had previously admitted it. Such were 
the advantages gained by the United States on both these 
points, the leading ones of the treaty, that it was styled in 
England the Ashburton capitulation. The treaty also pro- 
vided for the mutual surrender of fugitives from justice ; 
an object of great importance, considering the recent expe- 
riences on the Canada frontier. For the affair of the Caro- 
36 



422 PART lY. 1797-1850. 

line, an apology, or what amounted to one, was made by the 
British minister. Even the olcl quarrel about impressment 
was put to • rest, not by the treaty, but by a letter from 
Webster to Ashburton, repeating the rule originally laid 
down by Jefferson,. " that the vessel being American shall 
be evidence that the seamen on board are such," adding, as 
the present and future principle of the American govern- 
ment, that " in every regularly documeuted American mer- 
chant vessel, the crew who navigate it will find their protec- 
tion in the flag which is over them." In short, every 
diiFiculty with Great Britain was settled by the treaty, or 
by the accompanying negotiations, except one, the boundary 
of Oregon, on which no serious difference had as yet 
appeared. 

" I am willing," said Webster in the Senate, 
mark in nearly four years subsequently, " to appeal to the 
our Ins- pui^iic men of the a^e, whether, in 1842, and in the 

tory -^ _ ^ ' ' ' 

city of Washington, something was not done for the 
suppression of crime, for the true exposition of the princi- 
ples of public hiAv, for the freedom and security of com- 
merce on the ocean, and for the peace of the world." He 
miglit have made an even broader appeal. The treaty of 
Washington raised the growing nation to its place as a fore- 
most power on the earth. Compare it with all previous 
treaties with Great Britain, compare it with even the recent 
treaty with France, which had done much to elevate the 
national position of the United States, and we find that the 
treaty of Washington is a landmark in our history. 

To return to internal relations. The eye is at 

Sedition 

in Rhode on<"e caught by Strange and threatenmg movements 
Island, j.^ Rhode Island. That state, still under its charter 

Ajjproach. 

government, now a century and three quarters old, 
had long been agitated by efforts to change its ancient insti- 
tutions. It must be acknowledged that these admitted of 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 423 

improvement, both on the score of suffrage, to which none 
but freeholders ^ and their eldest sons were entitled, and on 
that of representation, the freeholders themselves being 
very unequally represented, in consequence of changes in 
the jDopulation of the towns, a town of former importance 
enjoying a larger representation than one that had latterly 
become its superior. New constitutions were twice pro- 
posed, (1824, 1834 ;) but in vain. At length, a Suffrage 
Association, as it was styled, spread itself, with meetings, 
processions, and badges, over the state, calling upon the 
people, without regard to the legal voters or the legal 
authorities, to unite in a convention, and organize a new 
constitution, (1840.) 

The sedition thus prepared broke out with the 

Outbreak. . ,^ 

meetmg,of the convention, (October, 1841.) A 
constitution, establishing universal suffrage and equal repre- 
sentation, was adopted, and submitted to the popular vote. 
Before the vote was taken, another constitution, of very 
nearly the same tenor,t was begun upon by a convention 
called by the legislature, according to the forms of law, 
(November.) The first constitution, called the People's, 
was adopted by a nominal vote of fourteen thousand, the 
whole number of voters in the state being twenty-two thou- 
sand ; but as the people's party never again mustered eight 
thousand votes, it is fixir to conclude — as was proved, 
indeed, by depositions at the time — that the fourteen thou- 
sand Avere the results of deception, (December.) The 
Landholders' Constitution, as the second instrument Avas 
styled, on being completed, (February, 1842,) and submitted 

* Of an estate valued at $'134, or renting for seven dollars. This was 
the rule of 1798. 

t The chief differences being in the length of residence entitling a 
native to vote, and in the requirement by the second constitution that a 
naturalized citizen must be a freeholder before he could vote. 



424 PART lY. 1797-1850. 

not merely to tlie freeholders, but to the citizens at large, 
was rejected, cliielly because the party m favor of retaining 
the charter government united with the people's party in 
opposition, (March.) This left the charter and the People's 
Constitution face to face, the former being the law of the 
state, the latter the law of a faction. To sustain the law of 
the state, the legislature declared fine and imprisonment the 
penalties of presiding at illegal meetings or of figuring upon 
illegal tickets, — in other words, of taking part in the elec- 
tions under the law of the faction. A call for aid was at 
the same time made upon the president of the United States 
by the governor of Rhode Island. President Tyler replied 
that aid should be forthcoming upon the commission of any 
act of violence by the faction. This body, nowise intimi- 
dated by either state or national authorities, went on with 
its elections, choosing its leader, Thomas W. Dorr, to be 
governor of Rhode Island, (April.) 

War soon followed. Dorr organized his govern- 

Civil war. . . , p , -t-. • i 

ment in the midst oi armed men at Providence, 
while at Newport Governor King, surrounded by the con- 
stituted authorities, renewed his summons for assistance 
from the nation. United States troops were moved to 
Newport, (May.) On the 18th of the same month. 
Dorr, at the head of an armed force, made an ineffectual 
attempt to get possession of the Providence arsenal, defended 
as it was by braver men than he or his soldiers. At this, 
all tlie better men of his faction, including mo'St of his legis- 
lature and state officers, abandoned his cause, while he fled 
the state. But it was only more decisively to try his for- 
tunes In the field. A month had hardly passed when news 
came tliat Dorr, with two or three hundred followers, was 
throwing up intrenchments at Chepachet, a village about 
ten miles from Providence. It took but a week for three 
thousand volunteers to come to"rether and march against the 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 425 

post of the insurgents, which was found ahandoned. There 
ended the civil war, (June 27.) Three months later a con- 
vention of the state adopted a new constitution, providing 
for the reforms which Dorr and his party had sought 
through sedition and strife, (September.*) 

Other states were orG-anizinsj themselves more 
st;itls peaceably. Arkansas, the first state admitted since 
anciterri- Missouri, (Juuc 15, 1836,) was followed by Michi- 

tories. 

gan, (January 26, 1837.) Wisconsin, organized as 
a single territory, (1836,) was presently divided as Wiscon- 
sin and Iowa, (1838.) Then Iowa was admitted a state, 
(March 8, 1845,t) and at the same date Florida became a 
member of the Union. 

All the while, Texas remained the object of desire 
ments ^^^l of debate. The administration continued its 
concern, negotiations, now with Mexico, deprecating the con- 

ino- Texas. o ' ? i o 

tinuance of hostilities with Texas, and then again 
with Texas itself, proposing new motives of alliance and 
new means of annexation with the United States. Presi- 
dent Tyler was strongly in favor of consummating the 
annexation. In this he was supported by a stronger and 
stronger inclination to the same end on the part of the south. 
But the north was growing more and more adverse to the 
plan. The old arguments were mingled with new ones. A 
great deal of stress was now laid on the danger of Texas 
throwing itself into the arms of another nation, of Great 
Britain, for instance, or of France ; the idea being that the 
United States would suffer from having upon their frontier 
a state in foreign dependence. But the main dispute as to 
Texas came from the question of slavery. 

* Accepted in November, and put in operation in the following May, 
(1843.) It was similar in its provisions to the Landholder's Constitution 
of a few months before. 

t Again in 1846, but not actually entering until 1848. 

36* 



426 PAllT lY. 1797-1850. 

Question " Fcw Calamities," wrote Abel P. Upshur, then 
of slavery, secretary of state, "could befall this country more 
to be deplored than the abolition of domestic slavery in 
Texas," (September, 1843.) Some months later, he wrote 
to Texas to the effect that she could not possibly keep up 
slavery without the aid of the United States, (January, 
1844.) All this was based upon the supposition that Eng- 
land was endeavoring to get Texas under her control, and 
then to clear the state of its slaves. It was afterwards 
stated by no less an authority than General Houston, that 
the supposition was totally groundless. But, however this 
may have been, the point is plain that the annexation of 
Texas was regarded as necessary to the interests of slavery, 
both in that country and in. the United States. The reason 
why it was so with the United States is evident enough ; 
not only was an immense market for slaves closed, but an 
immense refuge for slaves was opened, in case Texas 
should cease to be slaveholding. "Annexation," wrote 
John C. Calhoun, then secretary of state, "was forced on 
the government of the United States in self-defence," (April, 
1844.) Such, then, was the motive of the secretaries and 
the president, all southern men, and devotedly supported 
by the south, in striving for an addition to the slaveholding 
states in the shape of Texas. The more they strove on this 
ground, the more they Avere opposed in the free states. It 
was the Missouri battle over again. Nay, it was more than 
that ; in that, said the north, we contended against the ad- 
mission of one of our own territories, but in this contest we 
are fighting against the admission of a foreign state. 
A com- Like all the other great differences of the nation, 

piomi.se. ^tijjg (difference concerning Texas was susceptible of 
compromise. At first, the administration attempted to 
escape it, preparing a treaty which declared Texas a mem- 
ber of the Union, (April 12, 1844.) The treaty was 



ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 427 

rejected by the Senate ; but the nation sustained the project 
of annexation ; and in the next session of Congress both 
Senate and House united in joint resolutions of the same 
purport as the rejected treaty, (March 1, 1845.) Here, 
however, there was a compromise. The resolutions pro- 
vided that the Texan territory, when sufficiently peopled, 
might be divided into five states. " Such states," it was 
added, " as may be formed out of that portion of said terri- 
tory lying south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north 
latitude, commonly known as the Missouri Compromise 
line, shall be admitted into the Union with or without sla- 
very, as the people of each state asking admission may 
desire ; and in such state or states as shall be formed out of 
said territory north of said Missouri Compromise line, 
slavery or involuntary servitude (except for crime) shall be 
prohibited." Texas assented to the terms of the resolu- 
tions, (July 4,) and was soon after formally enrolled amongst 
the United States of America, (December 29.) 
Conse- The democratic party, espousing the project of 

quences. annexation before it was fulfilled, carried the elec- 
tion of James K. Polk as president and George M. Dallas 
as vice president. " Well may the boldest fear," said the 
new president in his inaugural address, " and the wisest 
tremble, when incurring responsibilities on which may 
depend our country's peace and prosperity, and in some 
degree the hopes and happiness of the whole human fam- 
ily," (March, 1845.) He found the annexation of Texas 
accomplished. But the consequences were yet to be seen 
and borne. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

War with Mexico. 

„ „ Mexico had all alonf^ declared the annexation 

Causes 01 ° 

war: of Tcxas by the United States would be an act of 
hostility. As soon as Congress resolved upon it, 
the Mexican minister at Washington demanded his pass- 
jDorts, (March 6, 1845,) and the Mexican government sus- 
pended intercourse with the envoy of the United States, 
(April 2.) " War " — so the Mexicans persisted — " was 
the only recourse of the Mexican government." The cause 
was the occupation of a state which they still claimed as a 
province of their own, notwithstanding it had been inde- 
pendent now for nine years, and as such recognized by 
several of the European powers in addition to the United 
States. 

Ameri- With tlic United States, the preservation of 
can. Texas was not the only cause of war. Indeed, for 
the time, it was no cause at all, according to the adminis- 
tration. If there was any disposition to take up arms, it 
came from what the president styled " the system of insult 
and spoliation " under which Americans had long been suf- 
fering ; merchants losing their property, and 'sailors their 
liberty, by seizures on Mexican waters and in Mexican 
ports. In spite of a treaty, now fourteen years old, (1831,) 
the wrongs complained of had continued, until President 
Jackson, in the last month of his administration, (February, 
1837,) thought it best to recommend demands for justice 

(428) 



WAR WITH MEXICO. 429 

" from on board one of our vessels of war on the coast of 
Mexico." After some delays, the Mexican government en- 
tered into a convention, (1839,) by" which a commission 
was appointed to examine the American claims, (18-10.) 
The term of the commission having expired before more 
than a third of the claims had been examined, (1842,) tlie 
United States pressed the appointment of a new commission ; 
but in vain. Instead, however, of dealing harshly with the 
jMexicans, the amounts acknowledged by them to be due to 
Americans were paid, so far as paid at all, by the United 
States government, their payment by the Mexican govern- 
ment being postponed, (1843.) All this, it is plain, would 
never have brought about war, had there been no other 
exciting cause. 

Bmmdnry Tliis causc was closc at hand. In annexing Texas, 
of Texas, ^j^g United States government understood the terri- 
tory to extend as far as the Rio Grande. For considering 
this the boundary there were two reasons ; one, that the 
Texans had proclaimed it such, and the other, that it was 
apparently implied to be such in the treaty ceding the 
country west of the Sabine to Spain, a quarter of a century 
before. Accordingly, American troops were moved to Cor- 
pus Christi, (August, 1845,) and, six months afterwards, 
(March, 1846,) to the Rio Grande, with orders " to repel 
any invasion of the Texan territory which might be at- 
tempted by the Mexican forces." On the other side, 
Mexico protested altogether against the line of the Rio 
Grande. The River Nueces, according to Mexican au- 
thority, was the boundary of Texas. Even supposing 
Texas surrendered by the Mexicans, which it was not, they 
still retained the territory between the Nueces and the Rio 
Grande — a territory containing but few settlements, and 
those not Texan, but purely Mexican. In support of this 
position, the Mexican General Arista was ordered to cross 



430 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

the Rio Grande and defend the countiy against the invader, 
(April, 1846.) 

Mission During these movements a mission was sent from 
from uuit- the United States to Mexico, (November, 1845.) 
The minister went authorized to propose and to 
carry out an adjustment of all the difficulties between the 
two countries. But he was refused a hearing; the Mexican 
govermnent, fresh from one of its revolutions, insisting that 
the question of Texas must be disposed of, and on Mexican 
terms, before entering upon any general negotiations. The 
bearer of the olive branch was obliged to return, (March, 
1846.) 

iiostiii- -A.S the American troops, some three thousand 
^^"^^^ strong, under General Taylor, approached the Rio 
Grande, the inhabitants retired ; at one place. Point Isabel, 
burning their dwellings. This certaimy did not look much 
like being on American or on Texan ground. But Taylor, 
obedient to his orders, kept on, until he took post by the 
Rio Grande, opposite the Mexican town of Matamoras, 
(March 28, 1846.) There, about a month later, (April 
24,) he was thus addressed by the Mexican General Arista: 
"Pressed and forced into war, we enter into a struggle 
which we cannot avoid without being unfaithful to what is 
most sacred to men." A Mexican force was simultaneously 
sent across the stream, to what the Americans considered 
their territory. Some collisions had already taken place; 
but the first act to begin hostilities occurred on the same 
day of the Mexican movements, when a squadron of dra- 
goons, sent by Taylor to reconnoitre the Mexicans, fell in 
with a much superior force, and, after a skirmish, surren- 
dered. The next day but one, Taylor, as previously author- 
ized by his government, called upon the states of Texas and 
Louisiana for live thousand volunteers. As soon as the 
news reached Washington, the president informed Congress 



;WAR WITH MEXICO. 431 

that " war exists, and exists by the act of Mexico herself," 
(May 11.) Congress took the same ground, and gave the 
president authority to call fifty thousand volunteers into the 
field, (May 13.) It was ten days later, but of course before 
any tidings of these proceedings could ,have been received, 
that Mexico made a formal declaration of war, (May 23.) 
The question as to which nation began hostilities, must for- 
ever depend upon the question of the Texan boundary. If 
this was the River Nueces, the United States began war 
the summer before. If, on the contrary, it was the Ilio 
Grande, the Mexicans, as President Polk asserted, were 
the aggressors. But there is no possible way of deciding 
which river it was that formed the actual boundary. The 
assertion of Mexico, that it was the Nueces, is as reason- 
able as the declaration of Texas, supported by the United 
States, that it was the Rio Grande. 
--,. ., The forces between which hostilities commenced 

Disparity 

of coin- were both small, the United States army being the 
smaller of the two. But this disparity was as noth- 
ing compared with that between the nations. The United 
States went to Avar with Mexico very much as they would 
have gone to war with one or more of their own number. 
Mexico, broken by revolutions, had neither government nor 
army to defend her ; there were officials, there were sol- 
diers, but there was no strength, no efficiency in either. 
Doubtless Mexico trusted to the divisions of her enemy, to 
the opposition which parties in the United States would 
make to the war. But the parties of the United States 
were one, in contrast with the parties of Mexico. 
Oreo-on ^^^ another point, the Mexicans could build up 

coutro- better founded hopes. At the very time that hostili- 
ties opened between the United States and Mexico, 
there was serious danger of a rupture between the United 
States and Great Britain. It sprang from conflicting claims 



432 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

to the distant territory of Oregon. Those of the United 
States were based, first, upon American voyages to the 
Pacific coast, chiefly upon one made by Captain Gray, in 
the Gohnnbia, from which 'the great river of the north-west 
took its name, (1792 ;) secondly, upon the acquisition of 
Louisiana with all the Spanish rights to the western shores, 
(1803 ;) and thirdly, upon an expedition under Captain 
Lewis and Lieutenant Clarke, of the United States army, 
by whom the Missouri was traced towards its source, and 
the Columbia descended to the Pacific Ocean, (1803-6.) 
Against these, the British government asserted various 
claims of discovery and occupancy. Twice the two nations 
agreed to a joint possession of the country in dispute, 
(1818, 1827 ;) twice the United States proposed a dividing 
line, once under Monroe, and again under Tyler. The 
rejection of the latter proposal had led to a sort of war cry, 
during the presidential election then pending, (1844,) that 
Oregon must be held. President Polk renewed the offer, 
but on less favorable terms, and it was rejected, (1845.) 
Agreeably to his recommendation, a twelve months' notice, 
preliminary to the termination of the existing arrangements 
concerning the occupation of Oregon, was formally given 
by the United States government, (1846.) Meanwhile 
emigration to Oregon had been proceeding on so large a 
scale during the few years previous, that there were some 
thousands of Americans settled upon the territory. It was 
a grave juncture, therefore, that had arrived. 
Settle- ^"t it was happily terminated on proposals, now 

•ment. emanating from Great Britain, by which the line of 
forty-nine degrees was constituted the boundary ; the right 
of navigating the Columbia being secured to the British, 
(June 15, 1846.) Thus vanished the prospect of a war 
with Great Britain, in addition to the war with Mexico. 
Btft its existence, if only for a time, explains a part at 



WAR WITH MEXICO. 433 

least of the confidence with which the Mexicans entered 
into the strife. It does away, on the other hand, with the 
apparent want of magnanimity in the Americans to measure 
themselves with antagonists so much their inferiors. 

The Mexican General Arista commenced the 
oniorUi- bombardment of the American position, afterwards 
cast of called Fort Brown from its gallant defender, IMajor 
Brown, (May o.) General Taylor was then witli 
the bulk of his troops at Point Isabel. Having made sure 
of that post, he marched back to the relief of Fort Brown, 
and on the way engaged with the enemy at Palo Alto, 
(May 8,) and at Resaca de la Palma, (May 9.) AVith a 
force so much inferior, that the most serious apprehensions 
had been excited for its safety, the Americans came otf 
victors in both actions. Such was the effect upon the Mex- 
icans, that they at once recrossed the Rio Grande, and even 
retreated to some distance on their side of the river. Tay- 
lor followed, carrying the war into the enemy's country, 
and occupying Matamoras, (May 18.) A long pause 
ensued, to wait for reenforcements, and indeed for plans ; 
the war being wholly unprepared for on the American side. 
But the news of the first victories aroused the whole nation. 
Even the opponents of the war yielded their principles so 
far as to' give their sympathies to the brave men who had 
carried their arms farther from the limits of the United 
States than had ever before been done by an American 
army. Volunteers gathered from all quarters in numbers 
for which it was positively difficult to provide. At length, 
with considerably augmented forces, Taylor set out again, 
supported by Generals Worth and Wool among many other 
eminent officers. Monterey, a very important place in this 
part of Mexico, was taken after a three days' resistance 
under General Ampudia, (September 21-23.) An armis- 
tice of several weeks followed. Subsequently, Taylor 
37 



434 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

marched southward as far as Victoria ; but on the recall fl 
a portion of his troops to take part in other operations, he 
fell back into a defensive position in the north, (January, 
1847.) There, at Buena Vista, he was attacked by a com- 
paratively large army under Santa Anna, then generalis- 
simo of Mexico, who, deeming himself secure of his prey, 
sent a summons of surrender, wdiich Taylor instantly 
declined. The dispositions for the battle had been made 
in great part by General Wool,, to wdiom, with many of the 
other olhcers, tli^ victory achieved by the Americans de- 
serves to be ascribed, as well as to the resolute commander. 
It was a bloody engagement, continuing for two successive 
days, (February 22, 23.) Taylor ^vas never more truly 
the hero than when he wrote to tienry Clay, whose son had 
fallen in the fight, that, in remembering the dead, " I can 
say with truth that I feel no exultation in our success." 
Santa Anna, meamvhile, Avas in full retreat, leaving the 
Americans in secure possession of all the north-eastern 
country. Six months later, Taylor sent a large number of 
his remaining men to act elsewhere, (August ;) then, leav- 
ing General Wool in command, he returned to the United 
States, (November.) 

Soon after the fall of Monterey, a force under 

Conqucnt -^ ' 

of Chi- General Wool was detached to penetrate into the 
northern province of Chihuahua. It did not go by 
any means so far. But at about the same time, an expe- 
dition from the north, headed by Colonel Doniphan, 
marched down upon the province, taking possession first 
of El Paso, (December 27,) and then, after a battle with 
tlic Mexicans, under Heredia, at the pass of Sacramento, 
(February 28, 1847,) of Chihuahua, the capital, (March 
1.) Doniphan presently evacuated his conquest, (April.) 
Early in the following year, Chihuahua became the object 
of a third expedition, under General Price, wdio, coming 



WAR WITH MEXICO. 435 

from the same direction as Doniphan, again occupied the 
town, (March 7, 1848,) defeating the Mexicans at the 
neighboring Santa Cruz de las Resales, (March 16.) The 
whole story of the Chihuahua expeditions is that of border 
forays rather than of regular campaigns.- 
Con uest I^oth Doniphan and Price made their descents 
( f New from New Mexico, which had been taken possession 

of by the Americans under General Kearney in 
the first months of the war, (August, 184G.) So scanty 
and so prostrate was the population as to offer no resistance, 
not even to the occupation of the capital, Santa Fe, (Au- 
gust 18.) But some months after, when Kearney had 
proceeded to California, and Doniphan, after treating with 
the Navajo Lidians, had gone against Chihuahua, an insur- 
rection, partly of Mexicans and partly of Indians, broke 
out at a village fifty miles from Santa Fe. The American 
governor, Charles Bent, and many others, both Mexicans 
and Americans, were murdered ; battles, also, were fought, 
before the insurgents were reduced, by Price, (January, 
1847.) 

roiKiiest -^^'^ *^^^ tidings of the war reached the Pacific 
of Call- coast, a band of Americans, partly trappers and 

partly settlers, — "a curious set," says an English- 
man who saw them, — declared their independence of 
Mexico at vSonoma, a town of small importance not far from 
San Francisco, (July 4, 1846.) The leader of the party 
was John C. Fremont, a captain in the United States 
Engineers, who had recently received instructions from his 
government to secure a hold upon California. A few days 
after their declaration, Fremont and his followers joined 
tlie American Commodore Sloat, who, aware of the war, 
had taken Monterey, (July 7,) and entered the Bay of San 
Francisco, (July 9.) Sloat was soon succeeded by Com- 
modore Stockton; and he, in conjunction with Fremont, took 



436 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

possession of Ciudad de los Angeles, the capital of Upper 
California, (August 13.) All this was done without oppo- 
sition from the scattered Mexicans of the province, or from 
their feeble authorities. But some weeks later, a few 
braver spirits collected, and, driving the Americans from 
the capital, succee<Jed likewise in recovering the greater 
part of California, (September, October.) On the approach 
of General Keai-ney from New Mexico, a month or two 
afterwards, he was met in battle at San Pasqual, (Decem- 
ber G,) and so hemmed in by the enemy as to be in great 
danger, until relieved by a force despatched to his assistance 
by Commodore Stockton. The commodore and the gen^ 
eral, joining forces, retook Ciudad de los Angeles, after two 
actions with its defenders, (January 10, 1847.) A day or 
two later, Fremont succeeded in bringing the main body of 
Mexicans in arms to a capitulation at Cowenga (January 
13.) California was again, and more decidedly than before, 
an American possession. Its conquerors, having no more 
Mexicans to contend with, turned against one another, and 
quarrelled for the precedence as vigorously as they had 
struggled for victory. Lower California was afterwards 
assailed, but under different commanders. La Paz and 
San Jose, botli inconsiderable places, were occupied in the 
course of the year. On the opposite shore, Guaymas was 
taken by a naval force under Captain Lavalette, (October,) 
and IMazatlan by the fleet under Commodore Shubrick, 
(November.) From time to time the Mexicans rallied 
against the invaders, but without success. It was all a 
series of skirmishes, fought in the midst of lonely mountains 
and on far-stretching shores, rather than of ordinary battles, 
that had reduced California beneath the American power. 

And now to return to the eastern side. From the first, a 
blockade of the ports in the Gulf of Mexico was but poorly 
maintained. Then the American fleet embarked upon vari- 



WAR WITH MEXICO. 437 



ous operations. Twice was Alvarado, a port to the 
tious^u south of Vera Cruz, attacked by Commodore Con- 
Guif of j^gj,^ ^jj^ twice it was gallantly defended, (August 7, 



Mexico. 



October 15, 1846.) Then Commodore Perry went 
against Tobasco, a little distance up a river on the southern 
coast ; but, though he took some prizes and some hamlets, 
he did not gain the town, (October 23-20.) The only 
really successful operation was the occupation of Tampico, 
which the Mexicans abandoned on the approach of their 
enemies, (November 15.) 

March Early in the following spring the fleet and the 

upon city army combined in an attack upon Vera Cruz. An- 
exico. ^j(,jpg^^JQjjg Qf success, howovcr high amongst the 
troops and their officers, were not very generally enter- 
tained even by their own countrymen, Vera Cruz, or its 
castle of San Juan d'Ulloa, having been represented over 
and over again, in Europe and in America, as impregnable. 
Nevertheless, a bombardment of a few days obliged . the 
garrison, under General Morales, to give up the town and 
the castle together, (March 23-26, 1847.) Once masters 
there, the Americans beheld thp road to the city of Mexico 
lying open before them ; but here, again, their way was 
supposed to be beset by insurmountable difficulties. They 
pressed on, nine or ten thousand strong, General Scott at 
their liead, supported by Generals Worth, Pillow, Quitman, 
and Twiggs, with many officers of tried and of untried rep- 
utation. However skilful the leaders, or however valiant 
tlie men, it was a daring enterprise to advance upon the 
capital. In other directions, along the northern boundary, 
the war had been carried into remote and comparatively 
unpeopled portions of the country. Here the march lay 
through a region provided with defenders and with defences, 
where men would fight for their homes, and where their 
homes, being close at hand, would give them aid as well a3 
37* 



438 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

inspiration. The march upon Mexico was by all means 
the great performance of the war. 

Battles on Its difficulties soon appeared. At Cerro Gordo, 
the way. gjxtj miles from Vera Cruz, Santa Anna posted 
thirteen thousand of his Mexicans in a mountain pass, to 
whose natural strength he had added by fortification. It 
took two days to force a passage, the Americans losing 
about five hundred, but inflicting a far greater loss on their 
brave opponents, (April 18-19.) Here, however, they 
paused ; a part of the force was soon to be discharged, and 
Scott decided that he would make his dismissals and wait 
for the empty places to be filled. He accordingly advanced 
slowly to Puebla, while the Mexicans kept in the back- 
ground, or appeared only as guerillas, (May 28.) The 
guerilla warfare had been prognosticated as the one insuper- 
able obstacle to the progress of the American army ; it 
proved harassing, but by no means fatal. During the delay 
ensuing on land, the fleet in the gulf, under Commodore 
Perry, took Tuspan and Tobasco, both being but slightly 
defended, (April 18 — June 15.) At length, reenforcements 
having reached the army, inaking it not quite eleven thou- 
sand strong, it resumed its march, and entered the valley 
of Mexico, (August 10.) 

In valley There the Mexicans stood, Santa Anna still at 
of Mexico, their head, thirty -five thousand in their ranks, 
regular troops and volunteers, old and young, rich and 
poor, men of the professions and men of the trades, — all 
joined in the defence of their country, now threatened at its 
very heart. They wanted much, however, that was essen- 
tial to success. Hope was faint, and even courage sank 
beneath the errors and the intrigues of the commanding 
officers, to whom, speaking generally, it was vain to look 
for example or for guidance. Behind the army was the 
government, endeavoring to unite itself, yet still rent and 



WAR WITH MEXICO. 439 

enfeebled to the last degree. Even the clergy, chafed by 
the seizure of church property to meet the exigencies of the 
state, were divided, if not incensed. It was a broken nation, 
and yet all the more worthy of respect for the last earnest 
resistance which it was making to the foe. Never had 
armies a more magnificent country to assail or to defend 
than that into which the Americans had penetrated. They 
fought in defiles or upon plains, vistas of lakes and fields 
before them, mountain heights above them, the majesty of 
nature every where mingling with the contention of man. 
Fourteen miles from the city, battles began at Contreras, 
where a Mexican division under General Valencia w^as 
totally routed, (August 19-20.) The next engagement 
followed immediately, at Churubusco, six miles from the 
capital, Santa Anna himself being there completely defeated, 
(August 20.) An armistice suspended further movements 
for a fortnight, when an American division under Worth 
made a successful assault on a range of buildings called 
Molino del Key, close to the city. This action, though the 
most sanguinary of the entire war, — both Mexicans and 
Americans surpassing all their previous deeds, — was with- 
out results, (September 8.) A few days later, the fourth 
and final engagement in the valley took place at Chapulte- 
pec, a fortress just above Molino del Rey. Within the 
lines was the Mexican Military College, and bravely did 
the students defend it, mere boys outvying veterans in feats 
of valor. In vain, nevertheless ; the college and the fortress 
yielded together, (September 12-13.) The next day Scott, 
with six thousand five hundred men, the whole of his army 
remaining in the field, entered the city of Mexico, (Septem- 
ber 14.) 

Last Santa Anna retired in the direction of Puebla, 

actions, -^iijcli he Vainly attempted to take from Colonel 
Childs. The object of the Mexican general was to cut off 



440 PART lY. 1797-1850. ' 

the communication between Scott and the seaboard ; bnt he 
did not succeed. A few last actions of an inferior charac- 
ter, a few skirmishes with bands of partisans, and the war 
was over in that part of the country. The American gen- 
erals betook themselves to quarrels and arrests ; Scott being 
some months afterwards superseded by General Butler, 
(February, 1848.) 

Now that their exploits have been described, the 

Composi- '■ 

ti )ii of United States armies are to be understood for what 
states^ they were. It v>^as no regular force, prepared by 
forces, years of discipline to meet the foe, that followed 
Taylor, Scott, and the other leaders, to the field. The few 
regiments of United States troops were lost, in respect to 
numbers, though not to deeds, amid the thousands of volun- 
teers that came swarming from every part of the Union. 
To bring these irregular troops into any effective condition 
was more difficult than to meet the Mexicans. On the 
other hand, there was an animation about them, a personal 
feeling of emulation and of patriotism, which made the vol- 
unteers a far more valuable force than might have been 
supposed. After all, however, it was to the officers, to the 
pupils of West Point, to the intelligent, and, in many cases, 
devoted men, who lefl their occupations at home to sustain 
what they deemed the honor of their country abroad, tliat 
the successes of the various campaigns are chiefly to be 
ascribed. The effect of the war was to give the nation a 
much more military character than it iiad hitherto sustained, 
even in its own eyes. 

Forced Oi^e point in the American conduct of the war is 

supplies. jQi ^ 1)^ noticed. As early as the fifth month of 
hostilities, (September, 1846,) the secretary of war in- 
structed General Taylor to " draw supplies from the enemy 
without paying for them, and to require contributions, if in 
tliat wny you are satisfied you can get abundant supplies.'* 



WAR WITH MEXICO. 441 

The same instructions were sent to General Scott in the 
following spring. But both the generals declined the at- 
temi^t of raising forced supplies. After the occupation of 
the capital, however, Scott exacted several large contribu- 
tions from the conquered country. Another form of levy- 
ing money Avas in the duties imposed upon all merchandise 
admitted into the Mexican ports occupied by the Ameri- 
cans. This, as the government allowed, " was, in effect, the 
seizure of the public revenues of Mexico;" the object 
being, as in the other cases, " to compel the enemy to con- 
tribute, as far as practicable, towards the expenses of the 
war." * 

Peace: The War had not continued three months, when 

fust steps. ^I^g United States made an overture of peace, (July, 
1846.) It was referred by the Mexican administration to 
the National Congress, and there it rested. In announcing 
to the American Congress the proposal which he had made. 
President Polk suggested the appropriation of a certain 
sum, as an indemnity for any Mexican territory that might 
be retained at the conclusion of the war. In the debate 
which followed, an administration representative from Penn- 
sylvania, David Wilmot, moved a proviso to the proposed 
appropriation: "That there shall be neither slavery nor 
involuntary servitude in any territory on the continent of 
America, which shall hereafter be acquired by or annexed 
to the United States by virtue of this appropriation, or in 
any other manner whatsoever." The proviso was hastily 
adopted in the House ; but it was too late to receive any 
action in the Senate before the close of the session, (Au- 
gust.) In the following session the proviso again passed 
the House, but was abandoned by that body on being 
rejected by the Senate. 

pfext Provided with the sum which he thought neces- 

steps. gg^^y tQ insure negotiation. President Polk appointed 



442 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

N. P. Trist, chief clerk of the state department, a commis- 
sioner to take out the plan of a treaty, requiring Mexico to 
cede a portion of her territory, but promising her some 
remuneration, (April, 1847.) It was several months after 
the commissioner's arrival at the American head quarters 
that he obtained an interview with any commissioners on 
the part of Mexico. He then met them several times, pro- 
posing his project and receiving theirs, the two being very 
far apart. The Mexicans were reluctant to yield any terri- 
tory, even that beyond the Kio Grande, which had been 
claimed as a part of Texas. It went especially against 
their inclinations to open it to slavery ; the instructions of 
the commissioners being quite positive on the point that 
any treaty to be signed by them must prohibit slavery in 
the ceded country. " No president of the United States," 
replied Commissioner Trist, "would dare to present any 
such treaty to the Senate." Nor was there any obstacle 
stronger than this against the agreement of the negotiators. 
They separated, without having accomplished any thing, 
(August, September.) 

Trist was recalled, apparently for not pressing 
the claims of his government with greater vehe- 
mence. But he took it upon himself to remain where he 
was, and to treat with new commissioners, two months after 
the entrance of the American army into the city of Mexico, 
(November.) The result of battles rather than of negotia- 
tions was a treaty signed at Guadalupe Hidalgo, a suburb 
of the capital. By this instrument Mexico ceded the whole 
of Texas, New Mexico, and Upper California, while the 
United States agreed to surrender their other conquests, 
and to pay for those retained the sum of fifteen millions, 
besides assuming the old claims of their own citizens against 
IMexico to the amount of more than three millions, (Feb- 
ruary 2, 1848.) The treaty contained other provisions, 



WAR WITH MEXICO. 443 

some of wliicli were modified at Washington, and altered 
accordingly at Queretaro, where the Mexican Congress was 
called to ratify the peace. Katifications were finally ex- 
changed at Queretaro, (May 30,) and peace proclaimed at 
Washington, (July 4.) The Mexican territory — that is, 
the portion which remained — was rapidly evacuated. 
Character Thus ended a conflict of which the motives, the 
of the events, and the results have been very variously 
estimated. But this much may be historically said, 
that on- the side of the United States the war had not 
merely a party, but rather a sectional character. What 
sectional causes there were to bring about hostilities, we 
liave seen in relation to the annexation of Texas. What 
sectional issues there were to proceed from the treaty, we 
have yet to see. " It is a southern war," was the express 
statement of a writer of -South Carolina. 



CHAPTER IX. 

COMPKOMISE OF 1850. 

New ter- WiTiiiN the limits of Texas, New Mexico, and 
litory. California, there lay a vast region, containing up- 
wards of eight hundred thousand square miles. All the 
United States, previously, comprehended but little beyond 
two millions. An addition, therefore, of considerably more 
than one third of the territory existing before the annexa- 
tion of Texas had been brought to pass. Extraordinary as 
was this acquisition in extent, if was still more extraordi- 
nary in character. Not to dwell upon the vaj'iety of cli- 
mate, of scenery, of soil, and of production, which it com- 
prehended, there was within the limits of California a 
region of surpassing value. Just before the treaty with 
Mexico, (January, 1848,) the erection of a mill upon a 
branch of the Sacramento revealed the existence of gold, 
Mdiich was soon discovered in other places. To cover the 
soil with gold diggers, and to arouse the rest of the countiy 
to emigration, or to speculation, or at least to wondering 
interest, were the almost instantaneous consequences. 
" The acquisition of California," exclaimed President Polk, 
placing that district first upon his list, " and New Mexico, 
the settlement of the Oregon boundary, and the annexation 
of Texas, extending to the Rio Grande, are results which, 
comljined, are of greater consequence, and will add more to 
the strength and wealth of the nation, than any which have 
preceded them since the adoption of tha Constitution." 

(444) 



COMPROMISE OF 1&53. 445 

Diffj. There Vv^as another side, nevertheless, even to the 

cuuies. president. In communicating the exchange of ratifi- 
cations bet\Yeen the United States and Mexico, he addressed 
Congress in this wise : " There has perhaps been no period 
since the warning so impressively given to his countrymen 
by Washington, to guard against geographical divisions and 
sectional parties, which appeals .with greater force than the 
present to the patriotic, sober-minded, and reflecting of all 
parties and of all sections of our country. As we extend 
the blessings of the Union over new regions, shall we be so 
unwise as to endanger its existence by geographical divis- 
ions and dissensions ? " This was written amid a perfect 
tumult of congressional and of popular discussions. Tlie 
canvass for a presidential election had begun, with Avliig 
and democratic candidates, in addition to whom were soon 
brought forward the candidates of a free-^oil party, so called 
from its insisting upon the exclusion of slavery from the 
recently acquired territories. All the signs of the time 
pointed to a wide and a grave division between northern 
and southern opinions. It was a more serious strife than 
tliat between the United States and Mexico, from which, 
directly speaking, it had sprung. 

Old questions were subsiding. The tai'iff, twice 
tionssai)- revised within the last few years, (1842, 184G,) had 
*"^'""' been framed in such a way as to determine the 
abandonment of the protective system. Former differences 
with regard to the tenure and the sale of the public lands 
were put to rest, at least for the time. The system of inter- 
nal im[)rovements, long A^exed and still undecided as to 
points of detail, was settled on general principles, establish- 
ing the policy of national though not of local enterprises at 
the charge of the federal government. Financial difficulties 
were also adjusted. The country acquiesced in renouncing 
a national bank and in supporting a national treasury. 
38 



44G. PART IV. 1797-1850. 

Though the public debt was largely increased by the 
expenses of the Mexican war, it occasioned no burdens, 
no altercations ; there was no division as to its management, 
no doubt as to its ultimate payment. All these questions 
had ceased to excite, if not to mterest the nation. 

Nor was there any substantial difference upon 

Organiza- •' ^ 

tionofoid the organization of the old territories. Wisconsin 
territory. ^^^^^^ .^_^ quietly 'as a state, (May 29, 1848.) Ore- 
gon was established as a territory, with some debate upon 
the exclusion of slavery ; but in this the south as well as 
the north were of much th6 same -mind, the line of the Mis- 
souri Compromise being held to extend to the Pacific. A 
trouble of quite a different sort broke out in connection with 
Oregon.; the Indians of that territory taking up arms, to 
the great peril of its settlers, in the year of its organization, 
(1848.) The next year another territory was peaceably 
organized in Minnesota, (1849.) 

The more tranquil the nation on these points, the 
tion^of^^' ^ore irritable it seemed to be upon the points relat- 
iiew terti- ing to the recent conquests. California and New 
°'^' Mexico required to be organized. The boundary 
between New Mexico and Texas, a subject on which Texan 
claims were very extensive, needed to be defined. Rela- 
tions with the Indian tribes in all the new territory also 
demanded attention. Yet there was no such thing as 
deciding any of these matters while they were enveloped in 
the mists of the slavery question. 

Slavery This qucstiou had never assumed vaster propor- 
qucstion. ^iQi^g, Xhc annexation of Texas, followed up by 
the war with Mexico, had been regarded, all over the 
country, as committing the nation, more decisively than 
ever before, to the support of slavery. The reasons for this 
view, whether well founded or not, stirred up the northern 
sentiment to undo what had been done, at the same time 



COMPROMISE OF 1850. 447 

that the southern feeling Avas equally aroused in carrying 
out the measures whicli had been begun. The idea at the 
north was this : that the south had gained, in Texas, an 
immense accession of strength, to which no addition was to 
be made, nay, from which, if possible, something was to be 
taken, either by the curtailment of the Texan boundary, or 
by preventing the entire Texan territory from being peo- 
pled by slaveholders ; at all events, New Mexico and Cali- 
fornia must be free. From the south, on the other hand, 
there came the demand, first, that Texas must be respected, 
and, next, that the other territories, acquired even more by 
southern exertions than by northern, must be left at liberty 
to choose whether they would or would not hold slaves. It 
was beginning to be known that neither California nor New 
Mexico was likely to be slaveholding. But this did not 
diminish the irritation in respect to them. The south was 
naturally disappointed that acquisitions from which they 
had looked for encouragement to Uieir peculiar interests 
did not preserve the original look of promise ; while the 
north, for the same cause, as naturally indulged in a certain 
exultation. This exultation on one side, and this disap- 
pointment on the other, fomented the strife between the 
contending parties. 

Congress showed a disposition to more decided 

action against slavery than it had ever done before. 

Instead of confinino; themselves to the oro-anization 

members <^ '^ 

of Con- of the territories, some members suggested the abo- 
grebs. litJQi^ of the slave trade, others that of slavery itself, 
in the District of Columbia. Alarmed by these demonstra- 
tions, the southern members met in convention, (December 
23,) and appointed a committee to report upon certain resolu- 
tions in relation to the existing difficulties. Calhoun, still a 
senator, laid an address of the southern delegates to their 
constituents before an adjourned meeting of the convention, 



Conven- 
tion of 
southern 



448 PART IV. 1797-1 SoO. 

(January 15, 1849.) The doeviment inveiu^liod aj^ainst the 
aggressions of the nortli, partieuhirly its evasion of the fugi- 
tive slave law, and its abolitionism. " We ask not," was 
the language of the address, " as the north alleges we do, 
for the extension of slavery. That would make a discrimi- 
nation in our favor as unjust and unconstitutional as the 
discrimination they ask against us in their favor. . . . 
What, then, we do insist on is, not to extend slavery, but 
that we shall not be prohibited from immigrating with our 
property into the territories of the United States because 
we are slaveholders." In conclusion, an earnest appeal 
was made to the south to be united. John M. Berrien, a 
senator from Georgia, proposed an address to the people 
of the United States instead of one to the south alone ; but 
the original address Avas adopted, (January 22.) Congress, 
meantime sat by, proposing and discussing much, but doing 
nothing beyond extending the revenue laws to California. 
,„, , The Avhigs had elected the new president, Avho soon 

The tern- ^ i ' 

toriescie- appeared in the person of the successful general, 
Snst Zachary Taylor, (March.) He took the only step 
slavery, in his powcr towards organizing the new territories, 
by instructing the officers stationed in them to encourage 
the people to organize themselves. The first to adopt his 
recommendations were the people of Deseret, the Avestern 
part of California, since called Utah, Avhere a number of 
JMormons had established their settlements. Next came 
the settlers of Sante Fe county, in New Mexico. But the 
only regular organization Avas that of the Californians, Avho 
met in convention and adopted a state constitution, (Sep- 
tember, October, 1849.) Every one of these territories 
Avent against slavery, California expressly prohibiting it in 
her constitution. The nortli became exultant, the south 
deilant, as the issue of the strife drcAV nigh. 

Congress met again, to be agitated from the very begin- . 



COMPROMISE OF 1850. 449 

ninoj of the session. Three weeks elapsed before 

Clay sug- ^ ^ ^ 

gests com- the House of Kepresentatives could even choose 
piomise. ^i-jgjj^. speaker, (December.) Very soon afterwards, 
Senator Foote, of Mississippi, introduced a bill for the 
organization of the territories, (January IG, 1850.) This 
■was followed by a series of resolutions proposed by Heniy 
Clay, leader in the Missouri and the tariff compromises, 
and now urging a new compromise upon the present diffi- 
culties. Disappointed as he had been in his political hopes, 
a candidate for the presidency for a quarter of a century, 
and though warmly, yet never successfully supported, the 
fervor of his ambition and of his patriotism had never died 
out. He came forward with proposals of concession on 
both the contending sides. The resolutions promised the 
north that the slave trade in the District of Columbia 
should be abolished, and on the other hand assured the 
south that slavery in the District should be maintained for 
the present ; they pledged the north to the restitution of 
fugitive slaves, the south to the admission of California as a 
free state ; while both north and south were to agree in 
organizing the territories, and in deciding the boundary 
between Texas and New Mexico, (January 29.) Weeks 
passed away in vain discussions. The suggestions of com- 
promise pleased neither party, and neither laid aside its 
arms. 

Webster What had been discussed with comparatively 
in debate. ^^^Iq powcr now bccamc the subject of grave and 
massive appeals. The extreme views of the south found 
vehement support, chiefly from Calhoun, who had led in 
the same cause for years. On the other side, the extreme 
views of the north were but faintly and feebly urged. The 
great leader of that section aspired to be the great leader 
of the country as a whole. " I speak," said Webster in the 
Senate Chamber, " not as a Massachusetts man, nor as a 
38=^ 



450 PART ly. 1797-18.50. 

northern man, but as an American, and a member of the 
Senate of the United States." " I speak," he added, " for 
the preservation of the Union." After adverting to the 
question of slavery in general, and deploring the vehe- 
mence with which it was supported at the south, Webster 
passed to the consideration of the territories. Texas, he 
averred, was a slave state by the terms of annexation ; 
New Mexico and California, on the other hand, were to be 
free states, both by the will of their inhabitants and by the 
nature of their climates and their soils. " The whole terri- 
tory within the former United States," said Webster, " or 
in the newly acquired Mexican provinces, has a fixed and 
settled character, now fixed and settled by law which can- 
not be repealed ; in the case of Texas, without a violation 
of the public faith, and by no human power in regard to 
California or New Mexico." It was useless, therefore, and 
worse than useless, he argued, to be wrangling about pro- 
visos of Congress to admit or to j^rohibit slavery. Recur- 
ring to the subject of slavery, especially to that*in the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, and to the provisions of the law concerning 
fugitive slaves, Webster deprecated the denunciations and 
the menaces of the north as earnestly as he did the passion- 
ate ideas of the south. Men differ as to their estimate of 
the compromise, but none doubt the influence of Webster 
in promoting its adoption. From the day that he spoke as 
has been described, (March 7,) the compromise was secure. 
^ ^ » But not without continued bitterness in both 

Report of 

coinpro- branches of Congress. The Senate finally appoint- 
^^'''^' ed a committee of thirteen, Clay being chairman, by 
wliom the compromise of 1850, as it is styled, was reported 
in three bills. The first admitted California as a state, 
organized New ]Mexico and Utah as territories without any 
provision for or against slavery, and arranged the disputed 
boundary between New Mexico and Texas by a large 
indemnity to the latter. The second provided for the 



COMPROMISE OF ISoO. 451 

recovery of fugitive slaves. The tliircl abolished the slave 
trade in the District of Columbia. The report of the com- 
promise (May 8) was instantly folloAved by the most 
impassioned debates. It seemed as if there could be no 
conciHation between parties so diverse and so inflamed. 
Its adop- At the height of the controversy, President Tay- 
tioii. Iqj. sickened and died, (July 9.) He was suc- 
ceeded by the vice president, Millard Fillmore, who called 
about him a new cabinet, Webster at the head, and threw 
the whole weight of the administration in favor of the com- 
promise. It was at first rejected. But, on the substitution 
of separate bills for each of the measures proposed, they 
were successively adopted by both houses. California was 
admitted a state ; New Mexico and Utah were constituted 
territories, and the payment of ten millions to Texas, on con- 
sideration of the boundary and other questions, was voted ; 
all on the same day, (September 9.) Nine days after, the 
fugitive slave bill became a law, (September 18 ;) and two 
days later still, the slave trade in the District of Columbia 
was suppressed, (September 20.) So ended, as far as legisi 
lation M^as concerned, a strife begun with the proviso of 
David Wilmot, more than four years before, and kept up 
during the whole of the intervening period, in Congress and 
throughout the nation. 
^ ,. , It did not yet cease. The president met Con- 

Continued -^ ^ 

contro- gress at the close of the year with the assurance 
^^*^^^* that "we have been rescued from the wide and 
boundless agitation that surrounded us, and have a firm, 
■ distinct, and legal ground to rest upon." Yet, on the floor 
of Congress, in all public places, at the tribunal and in the 
pulpit, as well as in private, around* the table and at the 
hearth, the nation was disputing both about the points 
disposed of and about the manner in which they had been 
disposed. Unlike the compromises of earlier years, the 
compromise of 1850 did not bring peace. 



CHAPTER X. 

National Development. 
^ , The accession to the national territory follow- 

Develop- '' 

mentof ing the annexation of Texas and the war with 
territory, j^^^j^^ |^.^g ^^g^j described. Vast as it was, it 
was much less than the increase which had already taken 
place. At the close of the revolution, the United States, 
not then extending to the Mississippi, embraced upwards of 
eight hundred thousand square miles. There were nearly 
four times as many, or upwards of twenty-nine hundred 
thousand, at the period wliich we have reached. Of the 
twenty-one hundred thousand thus added to the original 
eight, nearly nine came with Louisiana, (1803,) nearly one 
with Florida, (1819,) more than three with Oregon, (1846,) 
making thirteen, in addition to which were the three of 
Texas, (1845,) and the five of Mexico, (1848.) 
Ofpopuia- Tli6 increase of population was still more re- 
*'^"- markable. It did not spring from the extension of 
territory. All the twenty-one hundred thousand square 
miles, just mentioned, contained not two hundred thousand 
whites, even including the natives of the United States, 
who, as in Texas and Oregon, were but brought back to the 
fold of the nation. Yet the numbers of the United States 
had now swelled to upwards of twenty-three millions from 
the three millions at the end of the revolutionary period. 
Of the twenty -three millions, three were slaves, or five times 
as many as there were in 1783. The free population was 

(452) 



NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 453 

not merely five times, but eight times as numerous ; twenty- 
four hundred thousand in 1783, and in 1850, full twenty 
millions. Of this great number, less than an eighth were of 
foreign birth, but of the other seven-eighths and more, a 
large number were children of foreign born parents. Immi- 
gration had added immensely to the population, especially 
in the last quarter of a century. In ten years of the pre- 
ceding century, (1790-1800,) there were but fifty thousand 
arrivals; in one year of the present period, (1849-1850,) 
there were two hundred and eighty thousand. In summing 
up the population, we must add to the twenty-three millions, 
already stated, about four hundred thousand as the number 
of the Indians within the country. Rather less than half of 
these were dwellers in the more recently acquired territories ; 
rather less than a fourth probably Avere the descendants of 
those in the United States just after the revolution. To the 
cast of the Mississippi, none but a few scattered families of 
the aboriginal race remained.. 

Ofoccu- With such an expansion in population, and in 
pation. territory, there was of necessity an expansio'n in oc- 
cupation. Old pursuits were embraced by greater numbers, 
and followed out with greater resources to greater results. 
Such inventions as Eli Whitney's cotton gin, to separate 
cotton from the seed, (1793,) or Cyrus H. McCormick's 
reaper, to gather in a crop, (1847,) in ways no manual 
labor could compete with, enlarged the sphere of agricultural 
production. The earliest cotton mills were those of Rhode 
Island, (1790,) the earliest woollen, in which the power 
loom was used, were those of Massachusetts, (1807 ;) the 
begimiings of the manuftictures that became a great political 
as well as industrial interest at a later time. The chief 
occupation of the early time was still chief; out of six 
millions free males above fifteen years old, two millions and 
a half were now engasced in agiiculture and its kindred 



454 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

labors. To this number must be added the larger propor- 
tion of the nearly one milhon slave males above fifteen, em- 
ployed in the same way. Next to agriculture came the 
trades and the manufactures, employing not far from two 
millions. A million and a half remained for other occupa- 
tions, including those of commerce, which, like agriculture 
and manufacture, was greatly extended beyond its former 
limits. Of the class set down as professional or educational, 
the numbers were estimated at from two to three hundred 
thousand ; an immense increase, compared Avith tlie numbers 
of the past. New pursuits blended- in with the old. There 
was a constant trial of means as yet untried, a constant 
striving after ends as yet unattained. Inventions multi- 
plied, labors expanded ; afid not in any one direction, but on 
all sides. 

Of invest- Increased toils led to increased returns, and these 
ments. ^^ increased investments in the various branches of 
industry. To measure the investments by the annual re- 
sults, we find the products of agriculture for a single year 
estimated at thirteen hundred millions of dollars. The 
total return for trades and manufactures was ten hundred 
millions. Commercial statistics exhibit imports to tlie value 
of above one hundred and seventy-five, and exports to that 
of above one hundred and fifty millions. Such figures are 
confusing from their very vastness. Nor are they altogether 
safe as indications of the actual capital in the country. No 
people ever trusted so little to capital and so much to credit, 
as the growing nation of the United States. 

To make the resources and the exertions of the 

Ofcom- 

munica- nation effective, there had come into use new meth- 
^^^"^' ods of communication. The early canals, of little 
extent or importance, were followed by a series of very re- 
markable woi'ks, foremost amongst which were the Erie 
Canal of New York, (1825,) and the Ohio Canal from Lake 



NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 455 

Erie to the Ohio, (1832.) The first steamboat, the Cler- 
mont, the work of Robert Fuhon, appeared upon the 
Hudson in 1807. After a long interval, the passage of the 
Atlantic was made by the Savannah steamer, (1819.) 
First of our railways was the Quincy in Massachusetts, a 
single track of between three and four miles, to transport 
granite from a quarry to the water's edge, (1827.) The 
first locomotive was used upon the Hudson and Mohawk 
Railroad, (1832.) More recently, the invention of the elec- 
tric telegraph, first constructed between Washington and 
Baltimore, by Samuel F. B. Morse, (18-14,) completed the 
means of communication. At the close of the period, there 
Avcre in operation twenty thousand miles of telegraphic wires, 
sixteen thousand of raihvays, four thousand five hundred of 
canals, to say nothing of the countless spaces traversed by 
the steamers of our rivers, our lakes, and our seas. 
Of cdiica- So much physical development was not unattended 
tioii. |3y development of a higher sort. ^ The system of 
public schools had extended from the places where the first 
were founded throughout most, but not all of the country. 
A national provision for their support in the new states of 
the west and the south was made by the appropriation of 
lands in every township of the public domain ; a total of 
nearly fifty millions of acres being thus divided amongst 
tlie states and territories. Of the older states, the larger 
number had their school funds devoted to the same great 
object. The number of schools grew to be nearly one 
hundred tliousand ; that of their teachers was about the 
same. Private schools and colleges kept pace with the 
general increase ; the former amounting to upwards of six 
thousand ; the latter, including professional and scientific 
schools, to several hundred. Nor was it only in point of 
numbers that educational institutions were growing. They 
gave much better proof of progress in their studies and their 



456 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

methods of instruction ; not, indeed, that these reached the 
true standard of the scholar, but that they were much less 
remote from it than the schools and the colleges of older 
times. 

National ^^^^ nation had its institutions. A Military 
institu- Academy, first suggested by Washington, was es- 
"""'• tablished at West Point, (1802.) A Naval Acad- 
emy, recommended by John Quincy Adams, was opened 
long afterwards at Annapolis, (1845.) All the commenda- 
tions of Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and the second 
Adams, upon the subject of a national university, were 
fruitless. But much that would have been accomplished by 
such an institution was done at the offices of observation and 
of publication connected with the academies just mentioned, 
and with the various departments at Washington. A large 
bequest from James Smithson, of London, was received, 
and several years later, (1846,) applied by the United 
States, as the testator had directed, " to found at Washing- 
ton, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an 
establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge 
amongst men." 

Ex lorino- ^"^ enterprise of the government for the advance- 
Expedi- ment of knowledge is to be gratefully recorded. An 
Exploring Expedition, consisting of several vessels 
under the command of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, attached 
to whom was a body of scientific men, sailed (1838) on an 
extended cruise through the Antarctic and Pacific Oceans. 
The chief discovery of the expedition was that supposed to 
have been made of an antarctic continent ; but this was 
not entirely confirmed. More certain, therefore, were the 
results derived from the precise investigations of sea and 
shore, including races and productions, wherever the ex- 
plorers passed. A voyage of nearly four years ended with 
honor to them, and advantage not only to their country, but 
to the world, (1842.) 



NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 457 

Activity was nowhere more marked than in the 

The press. ^/^, ^ 

press. VVhere a tew movements, sluggish in them- 
selves, and broken by interference from without, had been 
perceptible, there now prevailed an activity only too rest- 
less. The department of newspapers was become perhaps 
the busiest of all. The enterprise of their publishers and 
their editors was something remarkable even in the land of 
enterprise ; nor was that of their readers less remarkable, one 
may say, considering the number of papers required to satisfy 
an individual. The number of newspapers — thirty-live at 
the beginning of the revolution — amounted at last to be- 
tween twenty -live hundred and three thousand. It might be 
supposed that other publications would suffer ; but not so. 
Almost as many books as journals issued from the press, some 
foreign, others original publications, on every sort of subject, 
and in every sort of form. Amongst the most characteristic 
as well as the most serviceable inventions of the time was 
that of a printing press by which thousands of impressions 
could be taken in an hour ; the inventor Avas Richard M. 
Hoe, (1847.) Other contrivances added to the facility of 
printing, so much so, that what was a work of }'ears, the 
century before, was now the work only of days. In all this 
multiphcation of methods and of results, good and evil were 
necessarily blended. The number of j^ublications proves 
development in one way ; but whether there was develop- 
ment in another and a higher way, depended on their char- 
acter. Every one knoAvs how various this was, hoAv various 
it is still. 

Publications increasing, libraries increased. The 

Libraries. . • p i i i 

scanty repositories ot a hunch-ed years previous were 
augmented or succeeded by far more numerous and far more 
valuable collections. Private libraries became compara- 
tively general ; public ones comparatively universal. From 
the university collection of thousands down to the Sunday 
39 



458 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

school case of fifty or a hundred volumes, the number of 
public libraries is estimated to have been more than fifteen 
thousand. Of course, there was the utmost diversity in 
point of importance ; some libraries, enumerated in the list, 
being totally undeserving of the name. None, not even the 
largest, compared with the great libraries of Europe, where 
books had been accumulating for centuries, and where ample 
endowments kept up the increase year by year. Nor, to 
speak generally, did the character of our libraries correspond 
with that of an equally large number of books in a Euro- 
pef,n collection ; ours being too often filled by purchases or 
by donations made at random. A new era in American libra- 
ries began not so much with the foundation, as with the 
formation of the Astor Library in New York, at the very 
close of the period compi-eliended in this volume. The col- 
lection of books commenced there for the benefit alike of the 
most contemplative and the most practical student, rather 
than of the mere reader, may well serve as an example to 
the nation. 
-., One branch of the national literature has been 

Litera- 
ture: po- touched upon and quoted from in the preceding 

pages. The political writings of the time, constitu- 
tional and administrative, belong too much to the world of 
action to be viewed merely as works of thought. Few of 
tlijem, indeed, bear marks of lofty contemplation, or of ab- 
stract reasoning ; the greater number, absorbed in fleeting 
circumstances, show little sensibility to the broad relations 
and the enduring principles of government. Such produc- 
tions as those of Webster and Calhoun are rare exceptions. 
If we see the dust of the day's strife upon them, it does 
not lie thickly enough to obscure the solemnity or the bril- 
liancy, as the case may be, of the cause for which tliey plead. 
Theoiogi- Thcological literature maintained its hold ; and 
*^'''- more naturally now that it comprehended the 



NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 459 

Avrititigs of various cliurclies, instead of being confined to 
the one or two of the colonial period. Chief amongst the 
successors of the early churchmen was John Henry Ilobart, 
Bishop of New York, in whom earnestness and learning 
were remarkably combined. At the head of those succeed- 
ing the early Puritans were Moses Stuart and William 
Ellery Channing, the former the leader of the old school, 
the latter of the new or liberal one. Both were men of 
great research and of great power. Both went beyond the 
limits of theological writings, especially Channing, whose 
works on education and on the great interests of humanity 
are more likely to endure than those upon points of theol- 
ogy. The Presbyterians had their expositor in Archibald 
Alexander, the Metliodists theirs in Ste})hen Olin. Amongst 
the Roman Catholics, the principal theologian was John 
England, Bishop of Charleston. 

Allied by its gravity to the productions that have 
been mentioned was the legal literature of the 
period. The laws of the United States were expounded by 
James Kent and Joseph Story ; those of nations by Henry 
Wheaton. Of the large number distinguished in one walk 
or another of jurisprudence, Edward Livingston, the author 
of a system of a penal code for the State of Louisiana, and 
subsequently of a system of penal laws for the United 
States, and Hugh Swinton Legare, not so much a Avriter as 
a jurist, were both eminent. 

iiistor- Omitting the works of the living, little remains to 

icai. constitute a historical literature during the period. 
Jeremy Belknap's History of New Hampshire and Abiel 
Holmes's American Annals are the only productions that 
merit especial mention. Both appeared near the beginning 
of the period ; a long interval elapsed without producing 
any histories worthy of the name. 

Scientific works were more numerous. John Picker- 



460 PART IV. 1797-18.50. 

^ . .^ ing and Albert Gallatin took the lead in pliilolorirY, 

Scientific. * . 1 aJ > 

particularly in the Indian languages ; both being 
eminent for other studies. Alexander Wilson, a Scotch- 
man by birth, published an American Ornithology, after- 
wards continued by another foreigner, Charles Lucien Bo- 
naparte. John James Audubon, born in Louisiana long 
before its acquisition by the United States, was the author 
of the Birds of America, and subsequently, in conjunction 
with his sons, of the Quadrupeds of America. Higher 
than any other name of the time in science, stands that of 
Nathaniel Bowditch, the translator and the commentator 
of the Mecanique Celeste of Laplace, the great astronomer 
and mathematician of France. 

Belles While such were the graver studies of men, oth- 

letties. ers of a lighter character were not neglected. In 
the cultivation of the belles lettres, a growing number was 
interested. Touching, we may say, are the accounts of the 
associations formed at the opening of the period, to fan the 
few sparks of general scholarship that then existed. Soon 
individuals appeared, some collecting, others composing 
books upon the subjects that they loved. A more graceful 
aspect was thus given to the intellectual pursuits of the 
nation. Towards the close of the period we find Richard 
Henry Wilde, a native of Dublin, devoting his fine powers 
to the memory of the Italian poets, while the English 
authors, Shakespeare and Wordsworth especially, received 
the tributes offered them by the pure taste and the pure 
heart of Henry Reed. 

Fiction had its votaries. Charles Brockden 
Brown began upon his romances at the close of the 
eighteenth century. He dealt witli unnatural occurrences 
and exaggerated emotions, — the groper, as it were, into 
the realms which no one of his nation had entered before 
him. Twenty years later, James Fenimore Cooper 



NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 461 

brought out the earliest of that remarkable series of novels 
in which the Lidian character was portrayed. He then 
turned to the sea, describing its wonders and its heroes. 
Not his own country alone, but other countries, welcomed 
the master, the first of all Americans to be acknowledged 
such in the world of imagination. A later novelist, and 
one of ,a very different mould, appeared in William Ware, 
whose Letters from Palmyra, or Zenobia, transported the 
reader from the freshness of the present to the decaying 
grandeurs of antiquity. 

The James A. Hillhouse was the ideal dramatist, 

diama. John Howard Payne the real. The former wrote 
his Percy's Masque from an English ballad, his Hadad 
from scriptural associations ; the latter sought the materials 
of his Brutus and his Clari amidst the copies and the tin- 
sels of the stage. Hillhouse deserves the name of poet. 
He was one of the first, the very first, of the present period 
to form a drama as one would form a poem, lofty and serene. 
The staple literature of the drama was like Payne's produc- 
tions, fit for the glare of the theatre, and fit for that alone. 
Poetry was beginning to find a place in Ameri- 
can literature. Maria Brooks, the impassioned au- 
thor of Zophiel, was a very different creature from the 
13oets or poetesses of colonial times. Quite as imaginative, 
and far more delicate, was the fancy of Joseph Rodman 
Drake, who died so young that the poems he left were but 
the signs of what he might have done. A longer life was 
given to James Gates Percival, whose occasional pieces are 
full of rhythmic inspiration. Above them all, in point of 
purity and of devotion, if not of imagination, was William 
Croswell. His poems are but the flowei^ dropped along 
the path of priestly offices. Yet had they, and not the 
offices, been his work of works, he would not have lived in 
vain. Almost the same words may be written of Andrews 
39* 



462 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

Norton, whose little cluster of hymns will move many send 
many a heart beyond the reach of the theological and crit- 
ical compositions in which he spent his days. 

In art, likewise, the nation was rousing itself. 
Gilbert Stuart was the great portrait painter of his 
day. John Trumbull, if not a great historical painter, was 
more than equal to the majority then engaged in that 
branch of art. Then came Washmgton Allston, at once the 
historical and the portrait painter, the landscape and the 
ideal artist, in whom sublimity and delicacy, the grandeur 
of spirit and the accuracy of detail, all found expression. 
It seemed as if it must have been some other land than 
ours, so material, so absorbed in the interests and in the 
strifes of outward life, that gave Allston being. But he 
came; and after him there has come a line of painters and 
sculptors who look back to Allston as to their leader and 
their head. Of these, it becomes us to mention only the 
departed. But the names of Thomas Cole, the painter, a 
native of England, and of Horatio Greenough, the sculptor, 
are such as to stand with honor for the living as well as for 
the dead. 

,, ,. . Of the reliojious development of the nation it is 

develop- difficult to take any suitable notice in limits so con- 
fined as these. From one pomt of view, that of the 
strict schools, — no matter to what church they belonged, — 
there was a retrocession rather than an advance in religious 
interests. From the opposite point of view — that of the lib- 
eral schools — the advance was pronounced incomparable 
and irresistible. Between these contradictory opinions the 
truth lay. Rehgion was not more widely or more truly, but 
more mildly, professed. Its followers, with few exceptions, 
had put off their armor. Persecution, it is true, was not 
wholly abandoned ; if it did not wear its ancient forms, it 
came forth from time to time in unmi&taii^able reality, soKie" 



NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 463 

times on religious, sometimes on political or on social 
grounds. But there was no longer the same strife that 
there had been amongst creeds and forms. The very mul- 
tiplicity of these was enough to distract the champions who 
would fain do violence in behalf of their own cause. So 
many, indeed, were the adversaries outside of any single 
church, that men turned against one another on the inside, 
the bitterest contentions arising between different parties 
within the same fold. In point of mere names and num- 
bers, the churches of the early time retained much the same 
relative position in the later period. If any had altered in 
this respect, it was the Roman Catholics, to whom large 
accessions had been made by immigration ; but they still 
formed a small proportion of the mass of Christians. On 
the Protestant side, the Protestant Episcopal church re- 
sumed its earlier station between the Roman Catholics and 
other denominations. Amongst the later additions to the 
sects was the Mormon community, which, after various 
migrations, settled in Utah Territory, (1847.) 

No clearer proof of the national development, 

Charities. ... -t ' 

both spiritual and physical, could appear than in the 
charities of the time. The extent to which these were car- 
ried, especially towards the close of the period, shows all 
the increase of resources, all the expansion of principles, 
that had come to pass. The sums expended by the state 
and town authorities for the support of paupers alone 
amounted to three million dollars by the year. To this 
must be added the much larger sums devoted by associa- 
tions and by individuals for the relief of almost every form 
of want and of crime. All this was the more generously 
expended in being expended to a great degree for the ben- 
efit of foreigners, who constituted a large portion of the 
wretched, and by far the largest portion of the wretclied of 
the lowest order. Besides the succor thus given to the 



464 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

most pressing necessities, the circle of charity embraced 
many enterprises of a higljer character. The insane, first 
cared for in the Lunatic Asylum of Williamsburg, Vir- 
ginia, (1773,) became the objects of charitable action 
throughout the country. The Friends' Lunatic Asylum 
was opened near Philadelphia, (1817;*) the American 
Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb in Hartford, (1817;) the 
Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the 
Blind in Boston, (1832;) the Massachusetts School for 
Idiotic and Feeble-minded Youth, also in Boston, (1848 ;) 
all these being pioneers in labors greatly extended after- 
wards. Another class of charities is represented by the 
associations for the improvement of prisons and the refor- 
mation of prisoners; the Philadelphia societies (1776-87) 
leading the way. In this connection may be mentioned the 
abolition of imprisonment for debt, begun upon by Congress 
at an early date, (1792,) and afterwards generally carried 
out by state legislation. Religious and missionary bodies 
were also active in the capse of charity. The Pennsyl- 
vania Bible Society (1808) and the American Board of 
Foreign Missions (1810) were followed by a long line of 
associations intent ujDon saving the souls of men. 



Conciu- Remembering all that has gone before, the fee- 
sion : the blcucss, the Strife, the continwed errors of the earlier 
the pres- 6^^? ^^'^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^ ^6 likely to fall into the vein of 
ent. overvaluing it, or of undervaluing the succeeding 
era. Nor, on the other hand, remembering the later events 
of our history, shall we imagine that the present puts the 
past to shame. Both periods have their virtues ; both their 
vices. If the past is to be regretted, it is only because its 

* Lunatics were received in the Pennsylvania Hospital from 1752. 



NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT. 465 

power to do evil was less ; if the present bears away the 
palm, it is only because its power to do good is greater ; the 
increased resources and the increased responsibilities of the 
later period constituting the real distinction between it and 
the earlier. It is the distinction between every preceding 
and every succeeding epoch, the only true progress of 
humanity. 

The same truth will help us to estimate the part 
the nation ^^ ^^^^ uatiou in liumau history, that is, its relation 
in human to Other nations and to the commo;i destinies of 
mankind. We are not to suppose the United vStates 
in the front of the universe, nor, on the contrary, place^ 
them in the rear, simply because they are young and free. 
Youth implies both vigor and immaturity, and when a 
nation possesses not only youth but freedom, the certainty 
of its being both vigorous and immature is confirmed. 
Such is our position ; we are strong, but we are unformed. 
If we are younger than other countries, it is not altogether 
to our advantage ; there may be the more for us to learn 
and to do before we become a complete nation. So, too, 
in being freer than other nations, we are exposed to dan- 
gers from which they are sheltered by their very bondage. 
The tendencies to lawlessness and to disunion are written 
in men's actions all around us. They must be met, checked, 
and subdued, before our republic is safe in itself or noble in 
the eyes of the stranger. On both grounds, therefore, — on 
that of youth and that of freedom, — we are under responsi- 
bilities that sometimes seem greater than the accompanying- 
privileges. At the same time, there is no doubt that we are 
the gainers by coming late and by coming free upon the 
stage of history. We have been animated by the great- 
ness, warned by the weakness, of earher times. Their bur- 
dens are not upon our shoulders, their bonds are not upon 
our limbs ; what has been is not perpetually clashing with 



4G6 PART IV. 1797-1850. 

what is, or with what ought to be. Great, indeed, are our 
lessons, and great our resources ; great, therefore, should be 
our deeds. If they are not so, our rank, historically, sinks 
to insignificance. But if they are, if the deeds bear full 
proportion to the resources and the lessons, then, and then 
only, the part of the nation in human history will rise to 
majesty. 



APPENDIX. 



EUROPEAN SOVEREIGNS, 

AT ANY TIME RULING, OR CLAIMING RULE, OVER ANY PART OF THE 
PRESENT UNITED STATES. 





Spain. 


England. 


1492. 


Ferdinand and Isabella. 


1492. Henry VII. 


1504. 


Ferdinand, Philip, and Jo- 


1509. Henry VIII. 




anna. 


1547. Edward VL 


1516. 


Charles I., (the Fifth of 


1553. Mary. 




Germany.) 


1558. Elizabeth. 


1556. 


Philip II. 


1603. James I. 


1598. 


Phihp III. 


16'25. Charles L 


1621. 


Philip IV. 


[1649. Commonwealth.] 


1665. 


Charles II. 


1660. Charles II. 


1700. 


Philip V. 


1685. James II. 


1746. 


Ferdinand VI. 


1689. AVilliam and Mary. 


1759. 


Charles III. 


1702. Amie. 


1788. 


Charles IV. 


1714. George I. 


1808. 


Joseph Napoleon. 


1727. George II. 


1814. 


Ferdinand VII. 


1760. George III. 




France. 


Holland. 


1515. 


Francis I. 


Stadtholders and Captains 


1547. 


Henry II. 


eral. 


1559. 


Francis II. 


1584. Maurice of Orange. 


1560. 


Charles IX. 


1625. Frederic Henry. 


1574. 


Henry III. 


1647. WilUam II. 


1589. 


Henry IV. 


[1650. Commonwealth.] 


1610. 


Louis XIII. 


1674. Wmiam III. 


1643. 


Louis XIV. 




1715. 


Louis XV. 


Sweden. 


1774. 


Louis XVI. 




[1792 


. Revolution.] 


1609. Gustavus Adolphus. 


1804. 


Napoleon. 


1632. Christina. 



Gen- 



(467) 



468 



APPENDIX. 



II 



AMERICAN AUTHORITIES. 



I. Presidents of the Continental Congress. 



1774. 

1775. 

1777. 
1778. 
1779. 
1781. 

1782. 
1783. 
1784. 

1786. 
1787. 
1788. 



Peyton Randolph, 
Henry Middleton, 
Peyton Randolph. 
John Hancock, 
Henry Laurens, 
John Jay, 

Samuel Huntington, 
Thomas McKean, 
John Hanson, 
Elias Eoudinot, 
Thomas Mifllin, 
liichard Henry Lee, 
Nathaniel Gorham, 
Arthur St. Clair, 
Cyrus Griffin, 



of Virginia. 

" South Carolina. 

♦' ]\Iassachusetts. 

" South Carolma. 

" New York. 

*' Connecticut. 

" Delaware.. 

♦' Maryland. 

♦* New Jersey. 

" Pennsylvania. 

" Virginia. 

<< Massachusetts. 

" Pennsylvania. 

" Virainia. 



II. National Administrations. 



1. 1789-97.- 



President. 
George Washington. 

Vice President. 
John Adams. 
Secretaries of State. 

1789. Thomas Jefferson. 

1794. Edmund Randolph. 

1795. Timothy Pickering. 

Secretaries of the Treasury. 

1789. Alexander Hamilton. 
1795. Oliver Wolcott 

Secretaries of XVar. 

1789. Henry Knox. 

1795. Timothy Pickering. 

1796. James McHenry. 



Postmasters General. 
1789. Samuel Osgood. 

1794. Timothy Pickering. 

1795. Joseph Habersham. 

Attorneys General. 
1789. Edmund Randolph. 

1794. William Bradford. 

1795. Charles Lee. 

Chief Justices. 
1789. John Jay. 

1795. John Rutledge. 

1796. William Cushing. 
Oliver Ellsworth. 

Speakers of the House of Bepre- 

sentatives. 
1789. Frederic A. Muhlenberg. 
1791. Jonathan Trumbull. 
1793. Frederic A. Muhlenberg. 
1795. Jonathan Dayton. 



APPENDIX. 



4G9 



2. 1797-1801. 



President, 

Jolin Adams. 

Vice President. 

Thomas Jefferson. 

Secretaries of State. 

Timothy Pickering. 
1800. John Marshall. 

Secretaries of the Treasury. 

OUver Wolcott. 
1800. Samuel Dexter. 

Secretaries of War. 
James McHenry. 

1800. Samuel Dexter. 

1801. lloger Griswold. 



Secretary of the Navy. 

1798. Benjanun Stoddert. 

Postmaster General. 

Joseph Habersham. 

Attorney General. 

Charles Lee. 

Chief Justices. 

Oliver Ellsworth. 
1801. John Marshall. 



Sjjeaken 



of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. 



Jonathan Dayton. 
1799. Theodore Sedgwick. 



3. 1801-09. 



President. 

Thomas Jefferson. 

Vice Presidents. 

1801. Aaron Burr. 
1805. George Clinton. 

Secretary of State. 

1801. James Madison. 
Secretaries of the Treasury. 

Samuel Dexter. 

1802. Albert Gallatin. 

Secretary of War. 
1801. Henry Dearborn. 

Seo'etaries of the Navy. 
Benjamin Stoddert. 



1802. Kobert Smith. 

180<5. Jacob Crowninshield. 

Postmaster's General. 

Joseph Habersham. 
1802. Gideon Granger. 

Attorneys General. 

1801. Levi Lincohi. 

1805. Robert Smith. 

1806. John Breckenridge. 

1807. Caesar A. Rodney. 

Chief Justice. 
John Marshall. 

Sj^eakers of the House of Bepre- 

sentatives. 
1801. Nathaniel Macon. 
1807. Joseph B. Varnum. 



4. 1809-17., 



President. 
James Madison. 

40 



Vice Presidents, 



1809. George Clinton. 
18 13-. Elbridge Gerry. 



470 



APPENDIX. 



Secretaries of State. 
1809. Robert Smith. 
1811. James Monroe. 

Secretaries of the Treasury. 

Albert Gallatin. 
1814. George W. Campbell. 
Alexander J. Dallas. 

Secretaries of War. 

1809. "William Eustis. 

1813. John Armstrong. 

1814. James Monroe. 

1815. WilHam H. Crawford. 

Secretaries of the Navy. 

1809. Paul Hamilton. 

1813. William Jones. 

1814. Benj. W. Crowninshield. 



Postmasters General. 

Gideon Granger. 
1814. Return J. Meigs. 

Attorneys General. 

Cffisar A. Rodney. 
1811. WUliam Pinkney. 

1814. Richard Rush. 

Chief Justice. 
John Marshall. 

Speakers of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. 

Joseph B. Vamum 
1811. Hem-y Clay. 
1813. Langdon Cheves. 

1815. Henry Clay. 



-5. 

President. 
James Moni-oe. 

Vice President. 
Daniel D. Tompkins. 
Secretary of State. 
1817. John Q. Adams. 

Secretary of the Treasury. 
1817. WUliam H. Crawford. 
Secretary of War. 

1817. John C. Calhoun. 
Secretaries of the Navy. 

Benj. W. Crowninshield 

1818. Smith Thompson. 



1817-25. 

1823. Samuel L. Southard. 
Postmasters General. 

Return J. Meigs. 
1823. John McLean. 

Attorneys General. 

Richard Rush. 
1817. William Wirt. 

Chief Justice. 

John Marshall. 

Speakers of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. 
Henry Clay. 

1820. John W. Taylor. • 

1821. Philip P. Barbour 
1823. Henry Clay. 



President. 
John Quincy Adams. 

Vice President. 
Johii C. Calhoun. 



1825-29. 

Secretary of State. 
1825. Henry Clay. 

Secretary of the Treasury, 
1825. Richard Rush. 



APPENDIX. 



471 



Secretaries of War. 

1825. James Barbour. 
1828. Peter B. Porter. 

Secretary of the Navy. 
Samuel L. Southard. 

Postmaster General. 
John McLean. 



Attorney General. 
William Wirt. 

Chief Justice. 
John Marshall. 
Speakers of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. 
1825. John W. Taylor. 
1827. Andrew Stevenson. 



7. 1829-37. 



President. 

Andrew Jackson. 

Vice Presidents. 

1829. John C. Calhoun. 
1833. Martin Van Buren. 

Secretaries of State. 

1829. Martin Van Buren. 
1831. Edward Livingston. 

1833. Louis McLane. 

1834. John Forsyth. 

Secretaries of the Treasury. 

1829. Samuel D. Ingham. 
1831. Louis McLane. 

1833. WiUiam J. Duane. 
Roger B. Taney. 

1834. Levi Woodbury. 

Secretaries of War. 

1829. John H. Eaton. 
1831. Lewis Cass. 



Secretaries of the Navy. 

1829. John Branch. 
1831. Levi Woodbury. 

1834. Mahlon Dickerson. 

Postmasters General. 
1829. William T. Barry. 

1835. Amos Kendall. 

Attorneys General. 

1829. John M. Berrien. 
1831. Roger B. Taney. 
1834. Benjamin F. Butler. 

Chief Justices. 

John Marshall. 

1836. Roger B. Taney. 

Sjjeakers of the House of Repi 
sentatives. 

Andrew Stevenson. 

1834. John Bell. 

1835. James K. Polk. 



8. 1837-41. 



President. 
Martin Van Buren. 

Vice President. 

Richard M. Johnson. 

Secretary of State. 

John Forsyth. 

Secretary of the Treasury, 

Levi Woodbury, 



Secretary of War, 

1837. Joel R. Poinsett. 
Secretaries of the Navy. 

Mahlon Dickerson. 

1838. James K. Paulding. 

Postmasters General. 

Amos Kendall. 
1840. John M. Niles. 



472 



APPENDIX. 



Attorneys General. 

Benjamin F. Butler. 
1838. Felix Grundy. 
1840. Henry D. Gilpin. 

Chief Justice. 
Eoger B. Taney. 



Speakers of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. 

James K. Polk. 
1839. Kobert M. T. Hunter. 



1841-45. 



Presidents. 



William Henry Harrison. 
John Tyler. 

Vice President. 

John Tyler. 

Secretaries of State. 

1841. Daniel Webster. 

1843. Hugh S. Legar6. 
Abel P. Upshur. 

1844. John C. Calhoun. 

Secretaries of the Treasury. 

1841. Thomas Ewing. 
AV alter Forward. 

1843. John C. Spencer. 

1844. George M. Bibb. 

Secretaries of War. 

1841. John Bell. 

John C. Spencer. 

1843. James M. Porter. 

1844. William Wilkins. 



Secretaries of the Navy. 

1841. George E. Badger. 
Abel P. Upshur. 

1843. David Henshaw. 

1844. Thomas W. Gilmer 
John Y. Mason. 

Postmasters General. 

1841. Francis Granger. 

Charles A. Wickliffe. 

Attorneys General. 

1841. John J. Crittenden. 

Hugh S. Legare. 
1843. John Nelson. 

Chief Justice. 
Roger B. Taney. 

Sp)eakers of the House of Repre 
sentatives. 

1841. John AVhite. 
1843. John AV. Jones. 



10. 1845-49. 



President. 
James Knox Polk. 
Vice President. 
George M. Dallas. 
Secretary of State. 
1845. James Buchanan. 

Secretary of the Treasury. 
1845. Robert J. Walker. 



Secretary of War. 
1845. William L. Marcy. 
Secretaries of the Navy. 

1845. George Bancroft. 

1846. John Y. Mason. 

Postmaster General. 
1845. Cave Johnson. 



APPENDIX. 



473 



Attorneys General, 

1845. John Y. Mason. 

1846. Nathan Clifford. 
1848. Isaac Toucey. 

Chief Justice. 
Roger B. Taney. 



Speakers of the House of Repre' 
sentatives. 

1845. John W. Davis. 
1847. Robert C. Winthrop. 



11. 

Presidents. 

1849. Zachary Taylor. 

1850. Millard Fillmore. 

Vice President. 
Millard Fillniore. 
Secretaries of State. 

1849. John M. Clayton. 

1850. Daniel Webster. 

Secretaries of the Treasury. 

1849. William M. Meredith. 

1850. Thomas Corwin. 

Secretaries of War. 

1849. George W. Crawford. 

1850. Charles M. Conrad. 

Secretaries of the Navy. 
1849. William B. Preston. 
40* 



1849-50. 

1850. William A. Graham. 
Secretaries of the Interior. 

1849. Thomas Ew-ing. 

1850. Alexander H. H. Stuart. 

Postmasters General 

1849. Jacob Collamer. 

1850. Nathan K. Hall. 

Attorneys General. 

1849. Reverdy Johnson. 

1850. John J. Crittenden. 

Chief Justice. 
Roger B. Taney. 

Speaker of the House of Repre- 
sentatives. 

1849. Howell Cobb. 



INDEX 



Abenakis, 57. 

wars with, 118-20. 

Abolitionism, 166, 304, 408. 
Acadie, 18, 19, 138, 142, 145, 149. 
Acts of Parliament, 105, 174, 175, 

186, 187, 193, 195, 198, 200, 201, 

203, 208, 241. 
Adams, John, 197, 203, 204, 222, 

223, 240, 263, 276, 297, 307, 316, 

325, 326, 331, 332. 
Adams, John Quincy, 312, 375, 386, 

390-93, 395. 
Adams, Samuel, 199, 203. 
Administrations, 468. 
Admiralty, 169, 187. 
Africans, 60. 

Alabama, 141, 337, 382, 396, 402. 
Alexandria Convention, 280. 
Algonquins, 56, 57. 
Alien act, 333. 
Allston, Washington, 462. 
America, discovered, 5, 9, 22. 

named, 11. 

American Association, 203, 207. 

American system, 394. 

Ames, Fisher, 321. 

Andros, Sir Edmmid, 107-109, 119, 

145. 
Annapolis Academy, 456. 
Annapolis Convention, 280. 
Arkansas, 382,415,425. 
Armed neutrality, 254. 
Army of the revolution, 210-212, 

231, 238, 239, 258, 264, 265. 

provisional, 332. 

• of the war with Great Britain, 

357, 361,367. 
■ of the war with Mexico, 431, 

435, 440. 
Arnold, Benedict, 211, 216, 229, 252, 

257, 260. 
Art, in the colonies, 162, 163. 

in the United States, 295, 462. 

Assemblies, colonial, 190. 
Astor Library, 458. 



Audubon, J. J., 460. 
Austin, Stephen F., 417, 418. 

Bacon, Nathaniel, 106, 107. 
Baltimore, 356. 

defence of, 366. 

Baltimore, Lords, 43, 78, 101. 
Bank of North America, 273. 
Bank of United States, 302, 368, 

380, 405-408. 
Banking, colonial, 174. 

national, 412. 

Baptists, 92, 93, 127, 164. 
Bartram, John and William, 162. 
Belcher, Jonathan, 173. 
Belknap, Jeremy, 291, 459. 
Berkeley, Sir William, 106, 107, 159. 
Berlin decree, 345. 
Bibles, editions of, 160. 
Billings, William, 295. 
Bishops proposed, 110, 165. 

appointed, 279. 

Black Hawk, 409. 

Bladensburg battle, 365. 

Blair, James, 158. 

Block, Adrian, 48. 

Board of trade, 169. 

Bonaparte, Charles L., 160. 

Boston, 37, 168, 173, 175, 196, 198, 

200, 201. 

siege of, 214, 218. 

Bowditch, Nathaniel, 460. 
Boyle, Robert, 114. 
Bradford, William, 33, 34. 
Bradstroet, Simon, 103, 108. 
Brainerd, David, 123. 
Brandywine battle, 235. 
Bridgewater battle, 362. 
Bromfield, Edward, 162. 
Brooks, Maria, 461. 
Brown, Charles B., 460. 
Bromi, General Jacob, 360, 362. 
Buena Vista battle, 434. 
Bunker Hill battle, 213. 
Burgoyne's defeat, 234, 235. 
(475) 



476 



INDEX. 



Burko, Edmund, 208, 217. 
Burnet, William, 172, 173. 
Burr, Aaron, 341. 

Cabot, John, 22. 

Sebastian, 22, 23. 

Calef, Robert, 96. 

Calhoun, John C, 355, 392, 403, 
426, 447, 449, 458. 

California, 135, 435, 436, 442, 444, 
446-451. 

Calvert, Sir George, 27, 43. 

Camden battle, 250. 

Canada, 17, 19, 136, 138, 142, 154, 
2J1, 216, 420. 

Canals, 454. 

Cancello, Luis de, 14. 

Canonchet, 118, 119 

Canonicus, 116. 

Cape Ann colony, 36. 

Capital, national, 301. 

Carolana, 45, 78. 

Carolina, 17, 78. 

Caroline, burning of the, 420, 421. 

Carver, John, 51. 

Catesby, Mark, 163. 

Central America, relations with, 
389. 

Cerro Gordo battle, 438. 

Channing, William E., 416, 459. 

Chapultepcc battle, 439. 

Charities, public, 463, 464. 

Charleston, 79, 246, 250, 261. 

defence of, 228. 

Charter governments, 38, 88. 

Charters assailed, 104, 108, 170. 

Cherokees, 58, 393, 396. 

wars with, 121. 

Chesapeake, affair of, 343, 344. 

Chickasaws, 58. 

war with, 144. 

Chihuahua conquered, 434, 435. 

Child, Robert, and fellow petition- 
ers, 91. 

Chippewa battle, 362. 

Church of England, 65, 91, 164, 279. 

Churches in the colonies, 91, 164. 

in the states, 279, 298. 

Churubusco battle, 433. 

Cincinnati Society, 269. 

Clarke, John, and fellow Baptists,92. 

Classes in colonies, 85, 87- 

Clav, Henrv, 355, 375, 386, 387, 
403, 407, 414, 449, 450. 

Clayborne, William, 45. 

Cole, Thomas, 462. 

Coligny, Admiral de, 17. 



Colleges, 29, 39, 158, 455. 
Columbia Convention, 399. 
Columbus, 7-11, 22. 
Commercial rule over the colonies, 

105, 174, 183. 
Commissioners, British, to Massa- 
■ chusetts, 103. 

to New York, 130. 

to .United States, 241. 

Companies, Dutch, 48, 49, 127, 128. 

English, 26, 27, 31, 42. 

French, 136, 143. 

Swedish, 54. 

Compromises, constitutional, 287- 

290. 

Missouri, 385, 386. 

tariff, 403. 

Texas, 426, 427. 

of 1850, 449^51. 

Conant, Roger, 36. 
Concord battle, 209. 
Conestoga massacre, 122. 
Confederation, 225, 254. 
Congress, stamp act, 188-191. 
Continental, 202-204, 211, 212, 

215, 221-225, 227, 231-233, 238- 

241, 244, 245, 251, 252, 254. 
of the Confederation, 255, 258, 

263-265, 270, 272, 274-276, 281, 

293. 
— - of the Constitution,'i296, 299- 

305, 308, 318, 321, 323, 324, 337, 
338, 346, 351, 353, 355, 367, 376, 
382-388, 391, 394, 396-398, 402, 
403, 405-407, 409-412, 414, 417, 
420, 421, 427, 431, 447-451. 

of Panama, 391. 

Congresses, Provincial, 292, 206, 

211 212. 
Connecticut, 40, 41, 76, 104, 108- 

110, 129, 210, 225, 275, 278, 369, 

370, 382. 
Consolidation of colonies, 107-110. 
Constitution, national, 279-293. 

amendments, 299 

Constitutions, state, 225, 277, 278, 

306, 382, 387, 422-425. 
Contreras battle, 439. 
Conventions, colonial, 167, 194, 201. 
constitutional, 280, 282, 292, 

293. 
Cooper, J. Fenimore, 460. 
Copley, John Singleton, 163. 
Cornbury, Lord, 171. 
Cornwallis's surrender, 259, 260. 
Council for New England, 32, 35, 41. 
Cowcnga capitulation, 436. 



INDEX. 



477 



Cow^pens battle, 256. 
Credit, public, 300, 416. 
Creeks, 58, 392, 393. 

wars with, 367, 380, 410. 

Crisis of 1837, 412, 413. 
Croswell, William, 461. 
Crown, supremacy of, 102. 
Crozat, Antoine, 141, 142. 
Cruger, Henry, 207. 

Dahcotas, 56. 

Dare, Virginia, 24. 

Dearborn, General Henry, 357, 360. 

Debt, imprisonment for, 464. 

public, 300, 301, 378, 408, 446. 

Decatur, Captain Stephen, 364, 377. 

Declaration of rights and liberties, 
188, 189. 

of colonial rights, 203. 

of independence by Mecklen- 
burg county, 210. 

by Congress, 223, 224, 227. 

Decrees, French, against American 
commerce, 317,^323, 331, 347, 
348, 353. 

D'Estaing, Count, 243, 244, 247. 

De Grasse, Count, 259, 260. 

De Kalb, Baron, 250. 

Delaware, 82, 225, 281, 282, 292. 

Delawarcs, 57- 

wars with, 121, 122. 

Democratic party, 411. 

Democratic republicans, 308, 314. 

Deposits in United States Bank 
removed, 406, 407. 

Deseret, 448. 

D'Iberville, Lemoine, 141, 146. 

Dickinson, John, 193, 203, 222, 292. 

Dictatorship of "Washington, 232. 

Doniphan, Colonel, 434, 435. 

Dorr, Thomas W., 424, 425. 

Drake, Sir Francis, 23, 24. 

Joseph R., 461. 

Dunster, Henry, 93. 

Edwards, Jonathan, 123, 161. 

Education, 157, 158. 

Eliot, John, 40, 103, 113-115. 

Embargo, under Washington, 318. 

under Jefferson, 346, and sub- 
stitutes, 347. 

under Madison, 351, 367, 368. 

Endicott, John, 36. 

England, John, 159. 

England, 65, 71-73, 179. 

English dominion at its height in 
America, 177, 179. 



Espejio, De, 15. 
Europe, 3-5, 61-66. 
European sovereigns, 467. 
Eutaw Springs battle, 257. 
Excise, 300, 308. 
Exeter insurrection, 270. 
Exploring Expedition, 456. 

Federal and anti-federal, 284, 286. 
Federal Convention, 282, 290. 
Federal Republican, of Baltimore, 

356. 
Federalist and anti-federalist, 291, 

302, 314, 318. 
Federalist, the, 292. 
Fillmore, Millard, 451. 
Five Nations, 57, 120. 

wars with, 144, 147, 148. 

Fletcher, Benjamin, 109. 

Florida, Spanish and British, 13, 

14, 131, 132, 135, 263, 313, 336, 

339, 350, 381. 

American, 381, 416, 425. 

Foot's resolution, 397, 398. 
Foreign relations, 215, 240, 312, 

379, 389, 410. 
Foreigners, protection of, 376. 
Fort Bow7er, 372, 373. 

Brown, 433. 

Erie, 362. 

Lee, 229. 

McHenry, 366. 

Moultrie, 228. 

Meigs, 359. 

Mercer, 236, 237. 

Mifflin, 236. 

Stevenson, 359. 

Sullivan, 228. 

Washington, 229. 

France, 64, 67-71. 

alliance with, 240. 

war with, 332. 

relations with, 313-317, 322, 

323, 331, 332, 334, 336, 338, 344, 

345, 347, 348, 353, 358, 410, 411. 
Franklin, Benjamin, 159, 160, 161, 

168, 192, 202, 223, 240, 263, 283, 

285, 287, 290. 
Franklin, or Frankland, 271. 
Free soil party, 445. 
Fremont, John C, 435, 436. 
Freneau, Philip, 294. 
French in the revolution, 240, 243, 

244, 252, 258-261. 
Frenchtown battle, 358, 359. 
Fugitive slaves, 86, 99, 289. 
Fugitive slave laws, 448, 449, 451. 



478 



INDEX. 



Gadsden, Christopher, 188, 203, 206. 

Gage, General, 200, 206, 211. 

Gallatin, Albert, 308, 355, 375, 460. 

Gaspe revenue schooner, 197. 

Gates, General Horatio, 234, 237, 
238,250. ^ 

General government for the colo- 
nies. 35, 36, 99, 107-110, 168, 170. 

Genet's mission, 315, 316. 

Georgia, 82, 133, 215, 225, 246, 277, 
392,393,395,396,402. 

Georgia controversy, 393. 

Germantown battle, 235. 

Gerry, Elbridge, 287, 290, 331, 378. 

Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 23, 24. 

Godfrey, Thomas, 162. 

Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, 31, 35. 36, 
38,74. 

Gorton, Samuel, 98, 117. 

Gosnold, BartholomeAv, 25, 27. 

Gourgues, De, 18. 

Governors, royal, 106, 171. 

Gray's voyage, 432. 

Great Britain, relations with, 276, 
313, 314, 317-320, 342-345, 347, 
348, 351, 379, 420, 421, 431, 432. 
(See Treaties, Wars.) 

Greene, General Nathaniel, 251, 
256, 257, 259. 

Greenough, Horatio, 462. 

Grenville, Sir Richard, 24. 

Guilford battle, 256. 

Gun boats, Jefferson's, 346. 

Hakluyt, Richard, 27. 

Hamilton, Alexander, 239,' 255, 

279, 280, 283, 284, 292, 299, 300, 

307, 308, 318, 335, 341. 
Hanson, Alexander, 356. 
Harrisburg Convention, 394. 
Harrison, William Henry, 349, 358. 

359,421. 
Hartford Convention, 369-372. 
Harvard, John, 39. 
Harvard College, 39, 93, 96, 194 
Harvey, Reuben, 263. 
Hawley, Joseph, 195, 204. 
Hayne, Robert Y., 398. 
Heckewelder, John, 311. 
Henry, Patrick, 187, 203, 204. 
Hillhouse, James A., 461. 
Hobart, John H., 459. 
Hobkirk's Hill battle, 256. 
Hopkinson, Francis, 294. 
Holmes, Abicl, 459. 
Houston, Samuel, 418, 426. 
Hudson, Henry, 47. 



Huguenots in Carolina, 17, 18, 79, 
Hull, Captain Isaac, 364. 
Hull, General William, 358. 
Hutchinson, Anne, 40. 

Illinois, 139, 201, 242,337, 341, 382, 
415. 

Immigration, 453. 

Impressment, British, 175, 317, 342, 
344, 353, 375, 376, 422. 

Indented servants, 85, 86, 278. 

Independence, American, idea of, 
229, 221. 

resolution of, 222, 223. 

Independent treasury, 413, 414. 

Indiana, 142, 275, 382, 415. 

territory, 337. 

Indians, tribes and numbers, 56-58, 
453. 

— —removal of, 349, 393. (See 
Treaties, Wars.) 

Insolvency of states, 414, 415. 

Iowa, 42-5. 

Iroquois, oQ, 51. (See Five Na- 
tions.) 

Jackson, Andrew, 324, 367, 372, 
373, 380, 381, 392, 395-397, 401, 
402, 405-409, 411, 417, 419, 428. 

Jav, John, 203, 221, 249, 263, 292, 
299, 318-320. 

Jay's treaty, 319-21. 

Jefferson, Thomas, 223, 274, 276, 
299, 305, 307, 308, 318, 326, 331, 
333, 338, 339, 343, 346, 347, 384. 

Jones, John Paul, 248, 249. 

Judiciary, national, 299. 

Judges, colonial, at king's pleasure, 
176. 

Kalm, Peter, 163. 
Kent, James, 459. 
Kentucky, 215, 271, 306. 
King's Mountain battle, 253. 
King's Province, 76, 104. 

Laconia, 35. 

Lafayette, Marquis de, 233, 241, 244, 

249, 251, 259-261, 268, 277, 296, 

325,388. 
Lake Champlain, action on, 363 

Erie, action on, 359. 

La Salle, 139, 140. 

Laurens, Henry, 254, 203. 

Law, English, in the colonies, 87. 

Lee, General Charles, 228, 238, 241, 

242. 



INDEX. 



479 



Lee, General Henry, 309, 356. 

Richard Henry, 203, 204, 222. 

Lcgarc, Hugh Swinton, 459. 

Leisler, Jacob, 108. 

Leverett, John, 105, 119. 

Lewis and Clarke's expedition, 432. 

Lexington battle, 209. 

Libraries, 457- 

Ligonia, 74. 

Lincoln, General Benjamin, 246, 

247, 250, 270. 
Little Belt, affair of, 350. 
Literature of the colonies, 161, 162, 

1G7. 
of the United States, 291, 292, 

294, 458-161. 
Livingston, Edward, 459. 
Livingston, Robert R., 223, 338. 
Locke, John, model for Carolina, 88. 
London Company, 27, 29. 
Long Island battle, 229. 
Louisiana, Americati, 338-340, 350, 

373, 415. 
French and Spanish, 133, 135, 

139-143, 154, 338. 

district of, 340, 350. 

Loyalists, 217, 263. 

Madison, James, 272, 2S3, 292, 326, 
334, 347, 351, 355, 378, 380, 398. 

Maine, 19, 31, 35, 36, 74, 75, 104, 
138, 271, 385, 386, 420, 421. 

Manhattans, 57. 

wars with, 125. 

Manufactures, colonial, restricted, 
170, 174. 

national, developed, 394, 453. 

I Mariana, 35. 

Marion, Francis, 250. 

Marquette, 139. 

Marshall, John, 331, 341. 

Martin, Luther, 287, 289, 291. 

Maryland, 43, 44, 77, 108, 129, 157, 
225, 255, 280, 415. 

Mason, John, 35, 36. 

Massachusetts, 37-39, 75, 99, 102- 
105, 108, 114, 129, 157, 166, 173, 
194, 200, 202, 206, 210, 212, 225, 
270, 275, 278, 279, 293, 368-371, 
376, 386, 421. 

Mather, Cotton, 96, 164, 165. 

Mather, Increase, 96, 119. 

Mavhew, Jonathan, 177, 187. 
j MaVhew, Thomas, 113, 114. 
' Mcbonough, Captain, 363. 

Mecklenburg county, 210. 

Mclendez de Avilez, 14, 17. 



Methodist Episcopal church, 279. 
Mexico, relations with, 409, 425, 

427-429. 
Miantonimoh, 116, 117. 
Michigan, 139, 337, 341, 358, 360, 

415, 425. 
Milan decree, 345. 
Military rule over the colonies, 175, 

176, 183. 
Militia, in the revolution, 206, 215, 

231. 
in the war with Great Britain, 

357, 367, 371. 
Minnesota, 446. 

Minors, enlistments of, 367, 372. 
Minuit, Peter, 50, 52, oo. 
Missions, French, 19, 20, 120, 138, 

139, 142. 

English, 113-115, 123. 

Moravian, 122, 124, 311. 

Spanish, 14, 131, 132. 

Mississippi, 141, 337, 382, 415, 416. 

territory, 337, 350, 382. 

navigation of, 258, 276, 313. 

Missouri, 142, 154, 340, 350, 382, 

387. 

compromise, 385, 386. 

M'Leod, Alexander, 420. 

Mobilians, 56, 58. 

Mohawks, 57, 120, 125. 

Mohegans, 57, 116, 117. 

Molino del Rey battle, 439. 

Monmouth battle, 242. 

Monroe, James, 322, 338, 343, 355, 

380, 381, 386, 388-390. 

doctrine, 389-391. 

Monterey taken, 433. 
Moravians, 83, 122, 124, 311. 
Mormons, 448, 463. 
Morris, Robert, 273. 
Morton, Thomas, 42. 
Mother country, relations with colo- 
nies, 102, 169, 183. 
Moultrie, Colonel, 228, 247. 

Narragansetts, 57, 116. 

war with, 117, 118. 

Natchez Indians, 58. 

war with, 144. 

National University, 456. 

Navigation acts, 105. 

Navy of the revolution. 215, 216, 

237, 248, 249. 

of the war with France, 332. 

of the war with Tripoli, 338. 

— ^ of the war with Great Britain, 

357, 359, 363-365, 374. 



480 



INDEX. 



Navy of the war with Algiers, 377- 
of the war with Mexico, 436- 

438. 
Neutrality proclaimed by Washing- 
ton, 315, 322. 
Neutrals, 317, 319, 323, 342, 353, 375. 
New Albion, 23, 45. 

Amstel, 128. 

Amsterdam, 50 ; first city in 

the United States, 127. 

Connecticut, 272. 

England, 31, 76, 99, 107- 

France, 17, 136-138, 140. 

Hampshire, 36, 75, 104, 210, 

225, 270, 272, 278. 

Hampshire grants, 76,271,272. 

Jersey, 80, 108-110, 172, 225, 

230, 254, 255, 281. 

Mexico, 15, 435, 442, 446-451. 

Netherland, 48, 125, 127, 130. 

Orleans, 143, 154, 338, 372, 

373. 

Orleans battles, 372, 373. 

Somersetshire, 36, 74. 

Sweden, 55, 127, 128. 

York, colony and state, 79, 

107-111, 130, 139, 167, 172, 176, 

196, 225, 255, 256, 272, 274, 279, 

292, 420. 

York citv, 50, 229, 292, 412. 

Newburg Addresses, 264. 
Newport, 230, 243, 248. 
Newspapers, 159, 160. 
Non-importation and non-inter- 
course, 191, 318, 332, 347, 368. 
North CaroHna, 78, 120, 121, 197, 

221, 225, 281, 292, 299, 305, 308, 

402. 
North-eastern boundary, 420, 421. 

Point battle, 366. 

Northern and southern parties, 272, 

273, 288, 303, 369, 383-387, 397, 

445-447. 
North-west Territory, 275, 305. 
Norton, Andrews, 461. 
Nullification in Kentucky, 333. 

in Virginia, 333, 395. 

in Massachusetts, 371, 372, 

376, 377. 

in Connecticut, 371. 

in Georgia, 393, 395. 

in South Carolina, 395, 399- 

403. 

Occupations, 156, 453. 
Oglethorpe, James Edward, 82, 83, 
133, 134. 



Ohio, 142, 275,341, 358, 360. 

Company, 151. 

Opechancanough, 115. 

Orders in council, British, against 

American commerce, 317, 345, 

347, 353. 
Oregon, 432, 446. 

controversy, 431, 432. 

Orleans, Territory of, 340. 

Osceola, 410. 

Otis, James, 177, 186, 188. 

Ottawas, 57. 

war with, 122. 

Paine, Thomas, 294. 

Palo Alto battle, 433. 

Panama, congress of, 391. 

Papal bull infavor of Spain, 10. 

Paper money, 232. 

Parliament, authority of, 104-106, 
174, 186. (See Jlf;ts.) 

Parties, in the colonies, 184, .191, 
196, 217, 222, 226. 

in the United States, 226, 

273, 285, 286, 288, 291, 299, 302, 
303, 307, 308, 314, 316, 320, 321, 
323, 324, 330, 333, 335, 339, 355, 
368, 369, 383-387, 411, 445. 

Patroons, 50. 

Payne, John H., 461. 

Penn, William, 81, 101, 167. 

Pennsylvania, 81, 101, 109, 122, 142 
157, 166, 225, 277, 278, 281, 292, 
308, 415, 416. 

insurrection, 308, 309. 

Pequots, 57. 

warmth, 116. 

Percival, James G., 461. 

Perry, Lieutenant Oliver H., 359. 

Persecution in Massachusetts, 43, 
91-95, 98. 

in other colonies, 96, 97. 

in New Netherland, 127. 

Philadelphia, *81, 101, 167, 198, 235, 

241. 
Philip, King, 117. 

war with, 117-119. 

Phips, Sir William, 95, 146. 

Pickering, John, 459. 

Pinckney, Charles C, 283, 289, 

323 331. 
Plymouth, 32-34, 74, 100, 104, 113, 

117, 119, 146. 
Plymouth Company, 31. 
Pokanokets, 57- 
war with, 117-119. 



INDEX. 



481 



Polk, James K., 427, 431, 432,441, 

444, 445. 
Ponce de Leon, 13. 
Pontiac, 122. 

Population, 184, 298, 357, 452. 
Povvhatans, 57, 112. 

war with, 115. 

Presbyterians, 91, 279. 
Presidents of Consjress, 468. 
Press, the, 158-160, 457. 
Prisoners of war, 262, 376. 
Proprietary governments, 43, 88, 

89. 
Protective system, 394, 397, 403, 

404, 445. 
Protestant Episcopal church, 279, 

298, 463. 
Providence, 41, 76. 
Pulaski, Count, 246, 247- 
Puritans in Holland, 32, 49. ' 

Quakers, 80, 81, 91, 94, 97, 127, 

164, 166. 
Queenstown battle, 360. 
Quincy, Josiah, Jr , 194, 197- 
Quintuple treaty, 421. 

Hallways, 455. 
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 24:. 
Randolph, Edmund, 283, 290, 296, 

299, 307, 320. 
Rasles, Sebastian, 120. 
Reed, Esther, 2,53. 
Reed, Henry, 460. 
Reformation, 61-63. 
Regulators, 197. 

Removals from office by Jackson, 

395. 
Republican party, 303, 314, 380. 
Repudiation, 415, 416. 
Resaca de la Palma battle, 433. 
Revolution of 1688, 71, 108. 
Revolution, war of. — Three Peri- 
ods, 227, 243: First, 206-219; 

Second, 227-242; Third, 243- 

266. 
Rhode Island, 41, 76, 97, 100, 104, 

108, 198, 202, 210, 225, 256, 278, 

293, 299, 369. 
Rhode Island, sedition and war in, 

422-425. 
Right of search. (See Impress- 

ments.) 

of visit, 421. 

Robinson, John, 113. 
Rochambeau, Count de, 252, 259- 

261. 

41 



Roman Catholics, 96, 164, 278, 

279, 298, 463. 
Royal African Company, 170. 

provinces, 30, 89. 

Rutledge, John, 203, 246, 289. 

Sackett's Harbor, defence of, 360, 

362. 
Saltonstall, Sir Richard, 93. 
Saratoga battles, 234. 
Saussaye, De, 19. 
Savannah, 83, 246, 247, 261. 
Schools, 157, 158, 455. 
Schuyler, General Philip, 234. 
Science in the colonies, 161, 162. 

in the United States, 460. 

Scott, General Winfieid, 362, 410, 

437-440. 
Secession of South Carolina, 395. 
Sedition act,^33. 
Settlements, Spanish, 13-16, 132, 

135. 

French, 17-21, 138-143. 

English, 22-46, 74-83. 

Dutch, 47-53, 129. 

Swedish, 54, 55, 127, 128. 

Seminoles, 58. 

wars with, 380, 410. 

Shawanoes, 57. 

wars with, 121, 122, 349. 

Shawomet, 98. 

Shays's insurrection, 270. 

Slaves, first in America, 10 ; first 

in United States territory, 28, 60. 
Slavery in colonies, 86, 166. 
in- the United States, 278, 288, 

289, 409. 
in the territories, 274, 275, 

304, 305, 337, 383, 384. 
in District of Columbia, 447, 

449-451. 

in Louisiana, 339, 383. 

in Missouri, 382-385. 

in Texas, 419, 425-427, 446, 

447. 
in New Mexico and California, 

447, 448. 
Slave representation, 288. 
Slave trade, 170, 171, 199, 278, 288, 

303, 304, 387 
Smith, John, 27, 28, 31, 112. 
Smithsonian Institution, 456. 
Society for propagating the Gospel 

in New England, 114. 
for propagating the Gospel in 

Foreign Parts, 165. 
Sons of Liberty, 196. 



482 



INDEX. 



South America, relations with, 389. 
Carolina, 78, 120, 121, 157, 

167, 225, 250, 395, 399-403. 
Spain, mistress of the west, 9. 
relations with, 275, 313, 336, 

339, 350, 380, 381. 
Specie payments suspended, 368, 

412. 
Spoliations, 379, 410, 428. 
St. Augustine, first town in United 

States, 15. 
St. Sauveur, 19. 
Standish, Miles, 31, 43. 
State, subordinate to nation, 392, 

404. 
Steamboats, 455. 
Steuben, Baron de, 258. 
Stony Point, taken, 248. 
Storv, Joseph, 459. 
Stuart, Gilbert, 462. • 
- Moses 459. 
Stuyvesant,' Peter, 127-129. 
Sub-treasury, 413, 414. 
Sumter, Thomas, 250. 
Surplus revenue, 408. 
Susquehannas, 57. 
war with, 115. 

Tariffs, 300, 379, 394, 395, 397, 403, 
445. 

Taxation, parliamentary, 105, 173, 
174, 186, 187, 193, 203. 

Taxes, national, 332, 368, 380. 

Taylor, Zachary, 430, 433, 434, 448, 
451. 

Tea destroyed, 198, 199. 

Tecumseh, M9, 360. 

Telegraphs, 455. 

Tennessee, 205, 271, 306. 

Territories, Jefferson's plan of or- 
ganizing, 274. 

Territory, colonial, 156. 

- — national, 444, 452. 

South of the Ohio, 305, 306. 

Texas, 140, 417, 442, 446, 447, 449- 
451. 

revolution, 418. 

annexation, 418, 419, 425-427. 

Thacher, Oxenbridge, 177, 187. 

Thames, battle of the, 360. 

Ticonderoga taken, 211. 

lost, 234. 

Tippecanoe, battle of the, 349. 

Tohopeka battle, 367. 

Towns, 89. 

Treaties of Aix-la-Chapelle, 134, 
ivO. 171. ^ 



Treaties of Broda, 130. 

Ghent, 375, 376. 

Guadalupe Hidalgo, 441-443. 

Paris, 134, 154, 179. 

Paris and Versailles, 263. 

Ryswick, 147. 

Seville, 133. 

Utrecht, 133, 142, 148, 171. 

Versailles, 263. 

Washington, 421, 422. 

A^ith Algiers, 311, 377. 

with Creeks, 367, 380, 393. 

with Five Nations, 148, 149. 

with France, 240, 336, 338, 

340, 410. 
with Great Britain, 263, 276, 

319, 343, 375, 421. 
\vith Indians, 300, 367, 377, 

380, 393. 

with Mexico, 428, 441-443. 

with Prussia, 274 (note), 312. 

^vith Spain, 313, 381. 

Transylvania, 216. 

Trenton and Princeton battles, 230. 

Trumbull, John, 294. 

John, Jr., 462. 

Tucker, Dean, 208. 
Tuscaroras, 58. 

war with, 120. 

Tyler, John, 421, 424, 425. 

Uncas, 116-118. 

Union, colonial — United Colonies 
of New England, 99, 100, 117,118. 

Penn's plan, 167. 

Coxe's, 167. 

Franklin's, 167. 

Halifax's, 168. 

United States of America, 224. 
Utah, 448. 

Valley Forge, 239. 

Van Buren, Martin, 406, 412. 

Van der Donck, Adrian, 126, 127- 

Van Murray, WilHam, 334. 

Vera Cruz taken, 437. 

Vermont, 76, 271, 272, 306. 

Vespucci, Amerigo, 11. 

Virginia, 26, 28-31, 77, 195, 198, 
202, 221, 225, 247, 256, 257, 271, 
274, 280, 292, 301, 321, 395, 402. 

Vizcaino, Sebastiano, 15. 

Volunteers of the Mexican war, 430, 
431, 433, 440. 

Walloon colony, 49. 
Ware, William, 461. 



INDEX. 



483 



Warren, Joseph, 210, 213. 
Wars, Dutch, 51, 52, 129, 130. 

French, 19, 133, 145-155. 

King William's, 145-147. 

Queen Anne's, 147, 148. 

King George's, 149, 150. 

Final, 150-154. 

Indian, with English, 106, 

115-123, 146-148. 

with Dutch, 125, 128. 

with French, 144, 146, 148. 

with Spanish, 131-135. 

United States, with Algiers, 

377. 

with Florida, 381. 

with France, 331, 332. 

with Great Britain, 350, 351, 

353-378. 
with Indians, 309, 310, 349, 

367, 38), 409, 446 

with Mexico, 427-443. 

with Tripoli, 338. 

Warwick, Earl of, 40, 99. 
Washington, before the revolution, 

151, 153, 187, 195, 200, 202-204, 

210. 
■ commander-in-chief, 212-219, 

221, 228-233, 235-239, 241-248, 

251-253, 255, 258-260, 262-267. 
after the revolution, 268, 276, 

277, 282, 292, 294. 



Washington, president, 296-299, 
302, 305-310, 315, 316, 318-325. 

in retirement, 332, 335. 

Wayne, General Anthony, 248, 310. 

Webster, Daniel, 390, 398, 407, 421, 
422, 449, 450, 458. 

Wesley, John and Charles, 163. 

West Point, 248, 252. 

— « — Academy, 456. 

Whitaker, Alexander, 30. 

AVhitetield, George, 163. 

Wickes, Captain, 237. 

Wilde, Richard Henry, 460. 

Wilkinson, General, 360, 361. 

Williams, Roger, 40, 41, 76, 97, 
116. 

Wilmot proviso, 441. 

Wilson, Alexander, 460. 

Winslow, Edward, 104. 

Winthrop, John, 37, 92. 

Jr., 41, 76, 130. 

Professor, 162. 

Wisconsin, 425. 

Wool, General, 433, 434. 

Woolman, John, 167. 

Worth, General, 433, 437, 439. 

Writs of assistance, 176. 

Wyoming, 245, 271. 

Zenger, John Peter, 160. 



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